St Richard's Hospital

St Richard's Hospital is a medium-sized District General Hospital (DGH) located in Chichester, West Sussex, England. Originally built in 1938 and expanded during World War II the hospital is located to the north of Spitalfield Lane in the northeast of the city. It has approximately 430 beds, including six ITU beds, a high dependency unit and a maternity unit. There is an accident and emergency department. The Chichester Treatment Centre was recently opened which treats patients on a day care basis. The hospital has an NHS fertility clinic which also treats some private patients. A new children's ward was opened in February 2011.

The hospital has a staff of 2,500 and an annual budget of £100 million and has recently survived the threat of downsizing or closure as part of the NHS Strategic Health Authority's 'Fit For The Future' proposal.

The original building at St Richard’s Hospital was built in 1938-39 by West Sussex County Council. It had 194 beds for elderly and infirm people, but at the beginning of the war in 1939, the Government declared it an Emergency Medical Service General Hospital. By 1940, 10 hutted wards were added, taking the number of beds to 400.

In the post-war period, the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre opened on the hospital site in 1966 and in 1970 new accident and emergency, outpatient, x-ray and maternity departments were opened, and two additional operating theatres added.

Donald Wilson House, the hospital’s neurological rehabilitation unit, opened in 1975 and two years later the hospital added its intensive care unit and coronary care unit.

In 1994, St Richard’s Hospital attained NHS Trust status and became Royal West Sussex NHS Trust. The hospital then expanded quickly, with 1996 a significant year as the hospital unveiled its larger new building, containing wards, physiotherapy and theatres. The Trust was also awarded a Charter Mark for excellence in public service that year, which was an outstanding achievement, while the hospital's first intrauterine insemination (IUI) triplets were also born.

Since then, the Trust has been proud to receive many awards, such as the UNICEF Global Baby Friendly Award in 1999 and the Top District General Hospital in the Sunday Times Good Hospital Guide in 2000. It has also been named as one of the CHKS Top 40 Hospitals every year since 2001.

In 2004, a successful fundraising appeal raised £1 million for a new MRI scanner and the following year the hospital scanned its 1,000th person using the machine. Also in 2005, the Trust proudly unveiled the Chichester Treatment Centre for short stay surgical procedures.

The maternity unit received praise in 2008, when it was named as one of the best performing in the country. In the same year, the hospital opened a dedicated children’s area in A&E and received an excellent rating for environment, food, privacy and dignity from the National Patient Safety Agency. The Bariatric Service for obese patients also celebrated winning a NHS South East Coast Best of Health award in the category of ‘dignity in care’.

2008 also saw Donald Wilson House replaced with a modern, environmentally-friendly building and construction get under way on the new Cancer Day Unit, known as the Fernhurst Centre. This new building was made possible thanks to a successful fundraising campaign which raised more than £3.5 million.

In October 2008, the Trust began plans for its merger with Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust. The merger took place on 1 April 2009 and the three hospitals – St Richard’s, Worthing and Southlands, in Shoreham-by-Sea, joined together to become Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.