County Hospital

Story

County Hospital is an acute hospital with less than 200 inpatient beds, opened in 1983. It is the main hospital in Stafford, England.The hospital is now operated and managed by University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and provides a wide range of medical and surgical services. County Hospital's Accident and Emergency unit is the only such facility in Stafford. Wards at County Hospital are numbered, with the exception of specialist unitsThe Hospital changed its name on 1 November 2014 from Stafford Hospital to County Hospital as part of the dissolution of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.HistoryThis hospital was built on the site of Coton Hill private psychiatric hospital which opened in 1854 and was demolished in 1976 with only the old chapel and gatehouse still visible. These buildings now form part of the Mid Staffordshire Postgraduate Medical Centre.When the County hospital site opened in 1983 it was named Stafford District General Hospital. The hospital was renamed Staffordshire General Hospital when Staffordshire General Infirmary, also in Stafford, closed in the early 1990s and services transferred.It was widely described as a "showpiece" hospital on its opening. However, in early 1985 it was the site of the serious 2nd major outbreak of Legionnaires' disease.In October 2011 a Care Quality Commission inspection found a lack of suitably trained nursing staff on duty in the accident and emergency department. In consequence the department was closed at night for three months to remedy this, and to allow time for staff development.