Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital
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The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) in
Gobowen Gobowen is a village in Shropshire, England, about 3 miles north of Oswestry. The population according to the 2011 census was 3,270. History The village was previously called ''Bryn-y-Castell'' ("Hill of the Castle" in English) after the House ...
, near Oswestry, Shropshire, England is a specialist orthopaedic hospital which provides elective
orthopaedic surgery 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 ...
. It is managed by the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.


History

The hospital was originally established in Baschurch by Miss
Agnes Hunt Dame Agnes Gwendoline Hunt DBE RRC (31 December 1866 – 24 July 1948) was a British nurse, who is generally recognised as the first orthopaedic nurse. Early life She was born in London, daughter and sixth of eleven children of Rowland Hunt ( ...
as the Baschurch Children's hospital in 1900. Agnes Hunt consulted Sir Robert Jones, after whom the hospital is also named, about her own condition in 1903 and he became honorary surgeon to the hospital in 1904. The hospital moved to its present site in Oswestry as the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital in 1921 and became the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in 1933. The hospital took in badly-injured patients under the Ministry of Health's Emergency Medical Service during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. The hospital was served by Park Hall Halt, on the 2½-mile Gobowen to Oswestry branch of the Great Western Railway, which was originally opened by the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway. The halt opened in July 1926, and closed in November 1966. The disused line today forms the western boundary of the site, and the remains of the halt can still be seen.
John Charnley Sir John Charnley, (29 August 1911 – 5 August 1982) was an English orthopaedic surgeon. He pioneered the hip replacement operation, which is now one of the most common operations both in the UK and elsewhere in the world, and created the ...
, the leading orthopedic surgeon, worked in the hospital for six months in 1946. It joined the
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 " ...
in 1948 and achieved NHS Trust status in 1994. Following a major building programme, the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries re-opened in 2001. The hospital was awarded
NHS Foundation Trust A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local st ...
status in August 2011.


Seven-day working

The hospital is a pioneer of seven-day working. Weekend work began with surgeons carrying out waiting list initiatives to deal with the problem of access times for the NHS. Researchers at the Dr Foster Intelligence Unit at
Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
looked at more than 4 million elective procedures across the UK in 2008-11. They found that the risk of death was 44 per cent higher if the patient was operated on a Friday and 82 per cent higher if operated on over the weekend. The Trust carries out about 10,000 procedures a year and in 2000-12 recorded 33 deaths after elective orthopaedic procedures. They found there was a lower mortality risk on Friday and on Saturday; at 0.008 per cent for Friday and 0.014 per cent on Saturday, with an average mortality rate for the trust at 0.023 per cent.


Performance

It was named by the Health Service Journal as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 1101 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 3.23%. 93% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 71% recommended it as a place to work. The hospital was investigated by
Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...
, a report commissioned by the trust itself, after an alert from a
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
found that from December 2013 to January 2015 an average of 424 patients had been excluded from the waiting list for surgery. The effect was that the trust "improved the performance above the 92 per cent national target. As such, it is clear to see that without the removal of these, the trust would not have met the national target for this indicator." The Trust has estimated it could to lose up to £8m in income, 16% of its turnover, during 2016-17 under changes to the NHS tariff which are set to affect all specialist orthopaedic hospitals, though discussions are ongoing with Monitor and NHS England to find a solution.


Veterans' Centre

What will be the UK's first orthopaedic outpatient centre for British Armed Forces veterans is being built at the hospital. £100,000 was pledged by the RJAH League of Friends when it launched an appeal in 2018. The Shropshire-based Headley Court Charity, following the sale of Headley Court in Surrey and transfer of facilities to
Stanford Hall, Nottinghamshire Stanford Hall is a grade II* listed 18th-century English country house in Nottinghamshire, England, in Stanford on Soar just north of Loughborough. It is home to the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC). History The manor of Stanfo ...
, provided a £6M grant for building the complex and adding accommodation for veterans' charities and
Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combi ...
services to provide a Veterans' Hub. A turf-cutting ceremony took place in June 2021 prior to the start of building.


Notable patients

*
Tim Brookshaw Tim Brookshaw (25 March 1929 - 8 November 1981) was a National Hunt jockey who was champion jockey in 1958/1959. Stanley James Brookshaw, always known as Tim, was born into a Shropshire farming family and started his career as a jockey with Chesh ...
,
National Hunt In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: ...
champion jockey and horse trainer, died there following a riding accident in 1981..


See also

*
List of NHS trusts This list of NHS trusts in England provides details of current and former English NHS trusts, NHS foundation trusts, acute hospital trusts, ambulance trusts, mental health trusts, and the unique Isle of Wight NHS Trust. , 217 extant trusts ...


References


External links


Shropshire History

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

OsCell is a dedicated website to The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital for the medical and science teams to provide information available for patients and current work

Orthopeadic Institute is a charity that helps The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital in Oswestry and also runs medical courses and books for doctors
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1900 NHS hospitals in England Specialist hospitals in England Hospitals in Shropshire Oswestry