View report page

18
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 Services. In 1947, Northwick Park was selected
as a site for a new hospital for Harrow and Wembley. In 1955 the Government's
plans for new hospital building included a project for building
Charing Cross Hospital on this site. In December 1958, the Minister of
Health announced his decision to include the first phase of the building
in the Government's hospital programme. Planning the first part, costing
£1,000,000, was to be completed in the financial year 1960/61. The
proposal for building Charing Cross Hospital at Northwick Park was
later abandoned because the University of London and the University
Grants Committee decided that Kenton was too far from London for the
training of medical students. It was then decided that the new Charing
Cross Hospital should be at Fulham. The North West Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Board then became the authority responsible for
providing the new hospital accommodation for this area. Towards the
end of 1959 it was understood that top priority was being given to the
building of a 254-bed regional hospital. The Board then revised their
views about what should be included in the first phase, and decided it
would be better to provide a larger unit than that originally envisaged even
though this meant some delay of the scheme. The estimated cost is about
double the amount originally earmarked.
Isolation Hospital. Infectious cases are admitted to the West
Hendon Hospital (112 beds) in Goldhawk Avenue, Hendon. With the
lessening demand for hospital beds for the infectious sick, twenty of
these beds are now used for general medical patients, and another twenty
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
Hospital (sixty beds), or to the Bushey Maternity Hospital (thirty-six
lying-in and fourteen ante-natal beds) which lies just outside the northern
boundary of the district and which is an annexe to the Edgware General
Hospital. J ust over the boundary in another direction in Wembley is the
Kingsbury Maternity Hospital (fifty-six beds) associated with the Charing
Cross Group of Hospitals.
This accommodation has to serve a large population living in a very
large area, and is insufficient to meet the demands. Even with strict
control over early bookings, all beds are booked well before the times they
are to be used. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for the
hospital to accept late applicants even though their circumstances make it
most necessary that the confinement should take place in hospital.