A brief history of Whipps Cross Hospital
by Alan Simpson
In 1992, Whipps Cross became a trust hospital with clinical directorship being formed to sit on the trust board. Believing that an acute hospital trust was too limited in scope, a broader trust was formed which included community medicine and mental health to create Forest Healthcare Trust. However, due to management difficulties where it became apparent that mental health management needed to cover a wider area, community health devolved to form primary care trusts. In 1993, construction of 'S' Block began. 'S' Block Phase 2 followed in 1995, the same year in which the Plane Tree Centre opened for the provision of day surgery.
The year 2001 saw Forest Healthcare Trust dissolved and Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust created – the name now reflecting the association and teaching links with the South Bank University in London. In 2003, there were celebrations to mark the hospital’s centenary. That year also saw the opening of the new Emergency Medical Centre.
By 2004, it was clear that the hospital buildings and their layout were not best suited to the needs of the new millennium. The original buildings were more than 100 years old, and many of the other buildings had passed their half-century. They had all become expensive to maintain and run, but would be difficult to modernise. Consequently, a redevelopment of the site was planned, but this was abandoned after the withdrawal of one potential Private Finance Initiative partner. The only work carried out was the construction of a new power centre next to James Lane. In 2011, work began on the northern part of the site for a new Emergency & Urgent Care Centre, which opened in May 2012 and incorporates the A&E Department.
Because of continuing financial problems and uncertainties over its future, a scheme for redevelopment of the site intended to begin in 2012 was abandoned. Instead, early in 2011, the Trust negotiated with Barts and the London NHS Trust and Newham University Hospital NHS Trust to merge and create a new trust. In 2012, the mergers were successful and Barts Health NHS Trust came into being; it is the largest NHS Trust in the UK.
Today Whipps Cross is a university hospital with more than 700 beds and 3,400 members of staff, from domestics to doctors. It provides a full range of in-patient, out-patient and day-case services, as well as maternity services and a 24-hour Emergency & Urgent Care Centre. It has one of the largest and busiest A&E departments in the UK, serving a diverse local population of more than 350,000 people from Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Epping Forest and further afield. The area has a wide variation in levels of deprivation and health needs, ranging from the most deprived five per cent to amongst the most affluent 30 per cent of electoral wards in England.
Leyton & Leytonstone
Historical Society
