Dr
John Haygarth - pioneering doctor
[Acknowledgments][Picture
Gallery] [Hospitals List][Other
organisations] [Facts
& Stats] [Patients Care] [Nursing]
[Who's Who] [What did the
Romans do for us?] [The Dark Ages] [The
Georgian Period of Enlightenment] [Mental
health] [19th and 20th Centuries
- a period of growth and change] [Up to
the present ] [Community and
Primary Care] [Education] [Staff
Welfare][Some links] [Staff
Induction Slide Show of the mid 1990's] [NHS
50th Anniversary Memories, 1998]
Well,
they almost certainly gave Chester it's very first hospital. The first
hospital was probably established by the Roman XX Legion within the Roman
Deva Fortress. Each Legion had its own "infirmaria"
and the Legion based in Chester was almost certainly no exception. So the
history of health services in the Chester area probably goes back nearly
2,000 years. Greeks often made up the medical profession in Roman times.
During excavations around and behind the site of the present town
hall, Roman era stone altars have been found with Greek lettering. One
has the doctor's Oath on it.
When
the Romans Legion withdrew in 410 the Dark Ages left little for us in the
way of health service history and we know nothing so far until
St
Gile's Hospital was opened in Chester (1181-1643) initially to
provide care for Lepers and "silly people" (Middle ages speak for "mentally
ill"). The Church was the driving force behind the provision of health
services in those days buoyed up by wealthy benefactors such as Ranulph
III Earl of Chester. 
So St Gile's was closely followed by the opening of The
Hospital of St John the Baptist (aka St John's Hospital), just outside
the Northgate, Chester, (1190) to care for the sick and infirm. St
John's continued as a charitable institution at the Blue Coat School, Northgate
Street in 1755. St John's Hospital was followed shortly afterwards in 1230
by The Hospital of St. Andrew, built
at Denhall the Dee (near present day Burton) for sailors and travellers.
That was closed finally in 1751. Then in 1508 The
Hospital of St Ursula, Chester, opened and provided health care service
until it too closed in 1871. St Ursula's Hospital was located in the house
of a Roger Smith, sheriff of Chester in 1499, who asked that his house
in Commonhall Lane be used as a hospital.
The Georgian Period of Enlightenment
It
was in April 1755 that a "Proposal
for the establishment of a Hospital or Infirmary in the City of Chester"
was made. Chester Infirmary
opened in 1761 taking over from the charitable institution at the Blue
Coat School, Northgate Street and remained the main hospital for the Chester
area until it closed in 1996 and all services transferred to the Countess
of Chester Hospital. It acquired its Royal name in 1913. Chester
City Hospital was opened in 1877 also as an acute hospital..
From 1983 it ceased to be a acute hospital and it was converted into an
Geriatric Hospital. It closed in 1994.
Of
course mental health is just as deserving as physical well being and as
mentioned above St Giles Hospital provided
care for "silly people". However the first dedicated Lunatic
Asylum Building was opened in 1829 and still retains the "1829"
Building" name to this day (although in 2002 it caters for different
clients - the West Cheshire Primary Care
Trust, Mersey Regional Ambulance Service, (first
Ambulance
purchased 1790), Public Health Laboratory Services (1914,
Pathology Laboratory opens) and the Countess of Chester Human
Resources Department. The Mental Health Hospital has been through
a remarkable number of name changes in its time from in 1829, the Cheshire
County Lunatic Asylum, to in 1855, the Cheshire
Lunatic Asylum, then in 1921, it became the County
Mental Hospital, in 1948, the Upton
Mental Hospital, after the local Chester Suburb by that name. In 1959,
it became the Deva Hospital,
and in 1965, West
Cheshire Hospital, Now it forms part of the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership
Mental Health Trust.
19th
and 20th Centuries - a period of growth and change
There have been several other hospitals in the vicinity of Chester that
have from time to time fallen within the West Cheshire administrative boundaries.
When the NHS was established in 1948 the Chester and District Hospital
Management Committee was formed under the Liverpool Regional Board. The
district was covered by a group of associate hospitals incorporating Chester
Royal Infirmary, Chester City
Hospital, Barrowmore Hospital,
Heath
Lane Hospital, and Ellesmere
Port Cottage Hospital.
Further
out in Cheshire there have long been associations with Crossley
Hospital, Dutton Hospital, Manor
Hospital, Moston Hospital, Runcorn
Cottage Hospital, (now known as Halton Hospital and recently merged
with Warrington Hospital), Sealand
Isolation Hospital , Parkgate
Sanatorium, Neston and District
War Memorial Cottage Hospital, Frodsham
Auxiliary Hospital, Oakmere Rehabilitation
Centre & Hospital and Tarporley
War Memorial Cottage Hospital. Barrowmore
Hospital, located about 3 miles out from Chester in the village
of Barrow, was opened in 1920. At first it served as a Sanatorium
& Colony for Ex-Servicemen with TB after World War I, but after
World War II it was transformed into a Regional
Centre for Major Surgery until it too closed in 1983.
Various local, charitable and voluntary organisations
have also had a long association with the health services in the area and
many have donated substantial sums to provide much needed facilities and
services such as Radio Lion.
Since the closure of the Regional Centre for Major Surgery and the city's two large hospitals, Chester Royal Infirmary (Acute) in 1996 and Chester City Hospital (Geriatric) in 1994, the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust, (COCH) has become the area's main district general hospital working with Ellesmere Port Cottage Hospital and Tarporley War Memorial Hospital. COCH serves a growing population from Chester and district, South Wirral and part of North East Wales. It was in 1983 that the present COCH general hospital and accident & emergency department opened. The Countess of Chester Hospital acquired its present title at the "naming ceremony" in 1984. Its various departments provide round-the-clock coverage and currently, the hospital boasts circa 600 beds and a Jubilee Day Surgery Centre which opened in 2002. Soon further growth will come from a major new outpatients department now under construction and also there are a number of other developments being planned for the near future.
Over the same period there has been a major growth in the number of
range of services available within the community. .This trend is likely
to continue as advances in medical technology and practice continue a pace.
The number of GPs, therapists and nurses has grown. The number and quality
of health centres has changed significantly over the last generation. New
and innovative ways of providing access to health services abound including
NHS Direct, internet based services, digital interactive TV and self diagnostic
tests. It will be interesting to look back in 30 years time and see what
has come to pass. A few name changes, mergers and re-configurations - almost
certainly. Major and fundamental changes - almost guaranteed. Never in
human history has so much changed happened so quickly...... etc.
If anyone from the community would like to develop this aspect of
the areas history please get in touch.
Of course the passage of organizations and time isn't the only slice
that can be taken through history. The education and training of health
service staff has seen dramatic changes over the last 250 years. Today
the Countess of Chester Hospital health park has a growing number of education
facilities such as Bache Hall, but
it wasn't always the case.....
Looking
after the welfare of the staff has also seen significant changes both in
provision and attitudes. There was a time over 200 years ago when nurses
in the newly opened Chester Infirmary were given beer and then beer
money as part of their pay. Not surprisingly drunkenness on the wards
was sometimes an issue. There used to be a number of facilities on the
Countess of Chester Health Park site to provide leisure access for staff
including team building club oriented sports facilities. These included
the tennis courts, a bowling green, full size cricket pitch, football fields
and of course the Staff Social Club and
Church. Attitudes to the provision of such services
are changing....
