View report page

19
the Hospital and Specialist Services in the Region. The Board aims to
provide in each area as complete a service as possible for the community.
As part of the programme two new hospitals have been approved and
planning is preceeding. One of these is the hospital at Northwick Park,
the other a hospital in North Hertfordshire in Stevenage. In January
1961 the Minister of Health issued details of the twenty-nine major building
schemes scheduled to start by 1964/65. The list includes these new
hospitals of which a 400 bed hospital at Stevenage is one. There was no
mention though of the Northwick Park Hospital in that list. In March
the Minister announced that the hospital is to be associated with a Clinical
Medical Centre which the Medical Research Council is to establish. "The
new plans for Northwick Park clearly fall into line with the Council's
(M.RC.) idea that the Research Centre should form an integral part of a
hospital dealing with current medical problems and thus keeping in touch
with the trends and changing disease patterns in day-to-day medical
practice." The report of the Medical Research Council for 1959/60
refers to plans for a Clinical Research Centre which will be associated
with the proposed new district hospital in Harrow. The Hospital appeared
again in the White Paper "A Hospital Plan for England and Wales," a
programme for 1961 to 1971.
Accommodation for the Infectious.
At one time an accepted standard of accommodation for the infectious
sick of the district was one bed per thousand population. It was on this basis
that the Harrow Urban District Council prepared their plans for a new
hospital to be built in Harrow Weald. Before a start could be made on
the erection of the building the war supervened. The experience of some
ten years showed that the district did not need that number of beds for
this purpose. Towards the end of the war then the Harrow Council
approached the Councils of Hendon and Wembley about a proposal that
the Hendon Isolation Hospital should be enlarged to a size which would
enable it to accept the infectious sick from the three districts. These
discussions were proceeding when the changes to be brought about by
the National Health Service Act became known. The needs of the district
were at that time being met by the accommodation at the South Harrow Isolation
Hospital so the Harrow Council planned to adapt the Stanmore Isolation
Hospital as a residential nursery, partly for the children of unmarried
mothers, it being intended that some of the mothers should be admitted
as well to help to run the nursery. As a result of this, the hospital passed
into the hands of the County Council to become in time a residential
nursery administered by the Children's Department. The South Harrow
Isolation Hospital passed into the hands of the Minister of Health and
became in time the Roxbourne Hospital for elderly patients. The infectious
sick from this district then were admitted to the Hendon Isolation
Hospital or as it became known the West Hendon Hospital. In general
its 112 beds proved adequate to meet demands, though on occasion
Patients had to be admitted to our hospitals. This comparatively small