Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Buckinghamshire Healthcare
Stoke Mandeville Hospital New PFI Building
Geography
Location	Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Emergency department	Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds	369
Speciality	Spinal cord injury
History
Founded	1832
Links
Website	www.buckshealthcare.nhs.uk
Lists	Hospitals in England

Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service (NHS) hospital in Aylesbury, England. It is part of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

The hospital's National Spinal Injuries Centre is one of the largest specialist spinal units in the world, and the pioneering rehabilitation work carried out there by Sir Ludwig Guttmann led to the development of the Paralympic Games. Mandeville, one of the official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in London, was named in honour of the hospital's contribution to Paralympic sports.

In the early 1830s the village of Stoke Mandeville was badly affected by cholera epidemics that swept across England. A cholera hospital was established on the parish border between Stoke Mandeville and Aylesbury. It was founded with monies provided by both parishes, but was built separately from both places as cholera was very contagious and the inhabitants were anxious to avoid infection.

By the start of the twentieth century the hospital had developed into an infectious diseases hospital, treating all infections, not just cholera. However the town of Aylesbury was growing, and the distance between the town and the hospital was getting smaller, and before long people with infectious diseases could no longer be treated at the hospital because the risk of infecting the local community was too great.

During World War II, the hospital was used to treat military casualties, and was expanded during this time to cater for the extra patients, so as to support the nearby Royal Bucks Hospital, in the centre of Aylesbury.

In September 1943 the government asked German-expatriate spinal injuries specialist Dr Ludwig Guttmann to establish the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The centre opened on 1 February 1944, and Guttmann was appointed its director (a position he held until 1946). As director of the UK's first specialist unit for treating spinal injuries, he believed that sport was a major method of therapy for injured military personnel helping them build up physical strength and self-respect.