Russells Hall Hospital is an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

general hospital located in

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, managed by the

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust runs Russells Hall Hospital and Guest Hospital in Dudley and Corbett Hospital Outpatient Centre, in Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It also provides community health services to the borough. It agreed i ...

. The hospital is south-west of the town centre on the A4101 road, which connects to the

Kingswinford Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census. The current economic focus ...

area of the borough.

History

The facility was first planned in the 1960s as a general hospital for Dudley and the surrounding area. The first phase of the hospital opened in the Russells Hall area of Dudley in 1976 as a laundry centre for the borough's hospitals, and the general hospital buildings were built within the next five years, but a shortage of equipment meant that it did not open to patients until March 1984, becoming fully operational in May that year. The new hospital included an accident and emergency unit to replace those at the

Guest Hospital The Guest Hospital is a hospital in Dudley, West Midlands, England, part of the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust History Victorian origins Situated in Tipton Road, Dudley the buildings were originally constructed as almshouses in 1849 by the Ea ...

and the

Corbett Hospital Corbett Hospital is a National Health Service (NHS) hospital run by the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust located in Amblecote, Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. The current hospital is an out-patient centre which opened on 25 May 2007 in a ...

in Stourbridge. Around this time, the NHS first began to consider the closure of Guest Hospital. In 1992, plans were unveiled for Russells Hall to be expanded as part of plans to close Wordsley and Guest hospitals, as well as parts of the Corbett Hospital. There was much protest against this, and over the next few years there were several amendments to the proposals - including a move which would have seen Wordsley Hospital keep its maternity services but for all other services to relocate to Russells Hall. In April 1998, however, it was decided that Wordsley Hospital would close completely and Corbett and Guest would be downsized to out-patient services only, with Russells Hall being expanded to include all of the borough's in-patient services. The rationalisation was procured under a

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 199 ...

contract in 2001. The new facilities, which were designed by the

Percy Thomas Partnership Percy Thomas Partnership was the trading name of the award-winning British architectural practice established some time between 1965 and 1973 as the successor to a series of earlier partnerships originally set up by Percy Thomas (1883–1969) in Car ...

and built by

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

, were completed in 2005 and the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a substantive title, style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a United Kingdom, British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of th ...

opened the revamped hospital on 22 February 2006 – 22 years after she had opened the original hospital. In preparation for the completion of the expanded hospital and inevitable rise in traffic, the main road towards Dudley town centre - Kingswinford Road - was widened into a dual carriageway in 2003. The car park was also expanded around the same time - a move which saw several houses along High Street demolished in 1999. Cricketer

Ian Botham Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one ...

, famous for his charity work, opened a state of the art

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

unit at the hospital in 1998. Pop star and actor

Martin Kemp Martin John Kemp (born 10 October 1961) is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in ''EastEnders''. He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also a ...

opened the hospital's new CT scanning suite in January 2006, a decade after he recovered from brain cancer with the help of pioneering treatment.

Services

The hospital now has its own bus station, which gives a direct bus link to

's centre,

Brierley Hill Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 2.5 miles south of Dudley and 2 miles north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a popu ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

. Russells Hall Hospital is currently home to Dudley Hospital Radio which is a free service available to the beds in the hospital. The radio station, which is run as a charity, originally started at the Guest Hospital in 1975 before moving to Russells Hall in 1999.

Performance

The trust was given four enforcement notices in 2018 by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

because of continued concerns regarding patient safety at the “inadequate” A&E department at Russells Hall.

2018 Inquiry

It was announced in September 2018 that the A&E department was being investigated after concerns had been raised about the deaths of 54 patients in a 6-month period.

References

External links