Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Countess of Chester Hospital
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Pedestrian entrance to Countess of Chester Hospital, Liverpool Road, Chester
Geography
Location	Chester, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	District General
Affiliated university	University of Liverpool School of Medicine University of Chester Swansea University School of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds	625
History
Founded	1829 Cheshire Lunatic Asylum 1968 West Cheshire Hospital 1984 Countess of Chester Hospital
Links
Website	http://www.coch.nhs.uk/
Lists	Hospitals in England

University of Liverpool School of Medicine

The Countess of Chester is the main NHS hospital for Chester and its surrounding area. The site was officially opened in 1984. It currently has 625 beds, general medical departments and a 24-hour accident and emergency unit.

The hospital, which was one of the first Foundation Trusts, is generally considered to be of a high quality. It consistently received the top 3-star rating in the national performance charts.

The hospital mainly comprises two or three storey buildings across the site. Most are interconnected with walkways, a large glass 'sky-bridge' links the main hospital to the paediatric and pre-natal department. It has a new extended outpatient wing known as the CARE building or Outpatients Four. Opened in January 2006, it houses the Cardiac Catheter Laboratory, Department of Clinical Audiology, Renal & Urology Department and ENT Department.

In 2007, the Countess of Chester became the first hospital in the UK to completely ban smoking for both workers and patients. In April 2014 a new two storey wing was opened containing a state of the art 21 bed Intensive Care Unit on the first floor, replacing the old HDU and ITU wards. On the ground floor is an expanded endoscopy unit and the bariatric outpatients department.

In 1829, the Cheshire Lunatic Asylum opened on part of the site. The county's mental health unit was based in the 'Lunatic Asylum Building'. The name of the site changed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the "Chester County Lunatic Asylum", to "County Mental Hospital", to the "Upton Mental Hospital", finally the "Deva Hospital". During this period, treatment for mental illness changed from institutional confinement to medication and therapy making the wards less busy. Eventually less than 5% of patients were kept confined in the hospital for treatment.

By 1948, Chester Royal Infirmary specialized in surgery and out-patients and the City Hospital, Hoole, in chronic illnesses, chest, maternity, paediatric, and general medical cases. Pre-war plans for the expansion of the Infirmary were eventually revived. In 1963 a large out-patient and casualty department was opened at the infirmary this was accompanied with the completion of Chester inner ring road in 1967. However, after the creation of the West Cheshire HMC (hospital management committee), a fresh decision was taken to focus all the hospital services for district at a purpose-built site on Liverpool Road adjacent to the county mental hospital facilities.