Northwick Park Hospital
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Northwick Park Hospital (NWPH) is a major
National Health Service 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 " ...
hospital situated near the town of Harrow, North West London, managed by the
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust is an NHS trust based in London, United Kingdom. The trust was formed by the merger of North West London Hospitals NHS Trust and Ealing Hospital NHS Trusts in October 2014. The trust runs Northw ...
. It is located off Watford Road in the
London Borough of Brent The London Borough of Brent () is a London boroughs, London borough in north-west London. It borders the boroughs of London Borough of Harrow, Harrow to the north-west, London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the north-east, London Borough of Camden ...
; closely bordering the
London Borough of Harrow The London Borough of Harrow () is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road), Brent to the southeast, Ea ...
.


History

The hospital was commissioned by the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board in the late 1960s, designed by the British architect John Weeks and built by
Trollope & Colls Trollope & Colls was once one of the United Kingdom's largest construction companies. History The Company was formed in 1903, out of the merger of ''George Trollope & Sons'' (founded by Joseph Trollope, a wallpaper hanger, in 1778) and ''Colls & S ...
. The design of the hospital was largely inspired by British obsolescence studies, in which a loose-jointed medical complex was created with flexibility to withstand obsolescence's unpredictable effects. With only a fixed internal street system, the architects referred to the hospital as "an indeterminate architecture" with "no final plan" – free to grow and change over time. It was opened by
the Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...
on 10 October 1970. It takes its name from
Northwick Park Northwick Park is a large green public park between Harrow and Kenton in north-west London, forming part of the London Borough of Brent. Most of the park consists of playing fields. It is also the name of the electoral ward of Brent that cover ...
, which is next to it. In 1994, St Mark's Hospital, previously located 10 miles away in central London, moved into a wing of the hospital formerly occupied by the Medical Research Council. In 1997, the hospital returned the worst figures for operations cancelled in the UK. The closure of Edgware General Hospital earlier that year was cited by some as a reason. In 2005, the hospital's
maternity ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...
department was named as having one of the highest
death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...
s in the United Kingdom. During the period April 2002 to March 2004, the maternal death rate for the maternity unit was 74.2 per 100,000, 6.5 times the national average of 11.4 per 100,000, as reported by Cemach (Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health). A range of "
special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...
" designed to improve maternity services and public confidence in the services was agreed with the Trust and these were all complied with within a year, but as of 2016 the Trust's maternity and gynaecology services were rated as "requires improvement" 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 ...
. A 2016 Care Quality Commission report rated Northwick Park Hospital as "requires improvement" overall, with only one out of eight assessment areas attaining a better rating. The report highlighted a number of concerns found during inspection visits, including that surgical staff were not always reporting incidents, patients experienced long waits, compliance with safeguarding training was poor, examples of poor infection control practice, a poor environment on the stroke wards, and that nutrition and hydration was poorly managed. The Commission subsequently issued the Trust with a Section 29 (A) warning notice.


Facilities

The hospital provides a full range of services including
paediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
, maxillofacial,
orthopaedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...
,
neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
,
cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...
, elderly care medicine and a regional rehabilitation unit for patients with additional ongoing acute medical needs. St Mark's Hospital, a national centre of gastrointestinal medicine, is based at the same site, as is the
British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...
's Olympic Medical Institute. Local charity
Radio Harrow Radio Harrow is a local charity radio station for Harrow, London, England, promoting health and wellbeing within the local community through its broadcasting and NHS befriending service. Registered charity number 1161203. Charitable Objectives T ...
is based within the hospital and has provided a patient visiting and broadcasting service since 1971. Northwick Park is one of the few hospitals in England to have a
paternoster lift A paternoster (, , or ) or paternoster lift is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments (each usually designed for two people) that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can ...
transport system. Despite being out of use for several years, it was brought back into service during 2020.


Research

Medical research has been conducted at Northwick Park Hospital since its founding. In 1994, some research programs were formalized into an independent charity, Northwick Park Institute for Medical Research (NPIMR), which now operates under the brand name of The Griffin Institute. The institute, founded by Colin Green, does
translational research Translational research (also called translation research, translational science, or, when the context is clear, simply translation) is research aimed at translating (converting) results in basic research into results that directly benefit humans. ...
.


TGN incident

On 13 March 2006, six men in a
clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...
at the independent Parexel drug trial unit (which is not run by London North West Healthcare NHS Trust) became severely unwell following administration of theralizumab during a first-in-human clinical trial. They were transferred to the intensive therapy unit at Northwick Park. Affected patients developed multi-organ failure and required intensive medical support by the critical care team at Northwick Park, led by Dr Ganesh Suntharalingam.


Notable staff and patients

*
Simon Le Bon Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is a British singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British ...
worked as a theatre porter at Northwick Park Hospital before becoming the lead singer for
Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...
. * "Jeeves", the UK's first ever robot nurse, worked at the hospital for six months in 1996-1997 until it "failed" its probation period. * General
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
was a patient at Northwick Park Hospital in January 2000 while fighting extradition for murder and torture.


In popular culture

Northwick Park is the setting for the
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. Most British sitcoms are recorded on studio sets, while some have an element of location filming. A handful are made almost exclusively on location ...
''
Green Wing ''Green Wing'' is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the Sketch comedy, sketch show ''Smack the Pony'' – Channel 4 commissioner Caroline Leddy and producer Victoria Pile – and ...
''. The hospital features in the seventh series of
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's ''
Prime Suspect ''Prime Suspect'' is a British police procedural television drama series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, who ...
''. In the 1976 film ''
The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Spencer ...
'', the external scene when Katherine's body falls from a window and crashes into a parked ambulance was filmed at Northwick Park Hospital. In episode 6, series 1 of ''
Fawlty Towers ''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television ...
'' ("
The Germans "The Germans" (named on some releases as "Fire Drill") is the sixth episode of the BBC sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''. In the episode, while suffering the effects of concussion, Basil Fawlty repeatedly offends some German guests. Despite warning his ...
"),
Sybil Fawlty Sybil Fawlty is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''. She is played by Prunella Scales. She is listed as 34 years old as seen on her medical chart in the 1975 episode "The Germans", presumably indicating she was born in 1 ...
is in Northwick Park Hospital for
ingrown toenail An ingrown nail, also known as onychocryptosis from el, ὄνυξ () 'nail' and () 'hidden', is a common form of nail disease. It is an often painful condition in which the nail grows so that it cuts into one or both sides of the paronychium ...
surgery.
Basil Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also kno ...
later joins her after he gets concussion during the fire drill. Northwick Park Hospital features in the
ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...
reality show ''Emergency Nurses'', which started airing in June 2022.


See also

*
Healthcare in London Healthcare in London, which consumes about a fifth of the NHS budget in England, is in many respects distinct from that in the rest of the United Kingdom, or England. History Early history The earliest state hospitals in the UK were set up in L ...
*
List of hospitals in England The following is a list of hospitals in England. For NHS trusts, see the list of NHS Trusts. East Midlands * Arnold Lodge, Leicestershire *Babington Hospital – Belper, Derbyshire *Bassetlaw District General Hospital – Worksop, Nottinghams ...
*
Mount Vernon Hospital Mount Vernon Hospital is located in Northwood, an area of north-west Greater London. It is one of two hospitals run by The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded as The North London Hospital for Cons ...
*
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in the London Borough of Harrow, United Kingdom, and a part of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. It provides the most comprehensive range of ...


References


External links


London North West Healthcare NHS Trust

Northwick Park Hospital General Information

Report of Healthcare Commission concerning maternity deaths in Northwick Park Hospital
{{authority control Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Brent Health in the London Borough of Brent Hospital buildings completed in 1970 NHS hospitals in London