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23
HEALTH SERVICES OF THE AREA
HOSPITALS
Particulars of the Hospital services for the Area were set out in the
Annual Report of 1954.
General Hospital Service. Although in his announcement in 1955
the Minister of Health indicated that the first stage of the erection of the
Charing Cross Hospital at Northwick Park was in the 1957/58 programme,
it was decided in 1957 that the new Charing Cross Hospital was to be
built on the site of the Fulham hospital. This decision caused concern
locally, more especially as from any discussion about these arrangements
there was no assurance that any other hospital was to be built on the
Northwick Park site. The Council instructed that representations be
made to the Minister of Health with a view to early provision of additional
hospital beds. In August, a letter was received from the North West
Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board which stated that "discussions
had been held with the Ministry who now seem to share the Board's
view that the most satisfactory way of meeting the deficiency in hospital
provision in the Harrow/Wembley area (if Charing Cross Hospital is not
to be rebuilt on the Northwick Park site) would be for the Board to
build a new hospital of 250 beds on the site." In a written reply to a
question in the House on 18th December, 1958, the Minister of Health,
referring to capital developments in the hospital service for the year
1960/61, said—"The major projects now selected include in new building,
the first phases of new general hospitals for north Tees-side and at
Northwick Park for the Wembley/Harrow area."
A later communication from the Minister informed the Council that
while he has not been able to accept the building of the whole of a new
hospital for inclusion in the Government's centrally financed programme
at this stage, he had decided to include a first phase, providing
this can be done at a cost not exceeding £1,000,000, and he had therefore
asked the Regional Hospital Board to try to complete the planning of
this scheme by 1960/61. The Minister's communication also informed
the Council that he had accepted a proposal made by the Regional
Hospital Board, to group the Harrow and the Wembley Hospitals with
the Harefield and Northwood Group Hospital Management Committee
as from the 1st April, 1959.
Isolation Hospital. Infectious cases are admitted to the Hendon
Isolation Hospital (112 beds) in Goldhawk Avenue, Hendon. With the
lessening demand for hospital beds for the infectious sick, 20 of these
beds are now used for general medical patients, and another 20 for those
with gynaecological conditions.
Maternity Hospitals. Most of the mothers who wish to be
confined in hospital are admitted to the maternity ward of the Edgware
General (60 beds), or to the Bushey Maternity Hospital (36 lying-in and
14 ante-natal beds) which lies just outside the northern boundary of the
district and which is an annexe to the Edgware General Hospital. Just