Broomfield Hospital

Broomfield Hospital in is the general hospital for Chelmsford and the largest within the Mid Essex Hospitals Services Trust. It is an 800-bed acute hospital and offers a vast range of services and clinical areas. The world renowned St. Andrew's Centre - a specialist unit for cleft lip and palate, burns and plastic surgery is also located at Broomfield Hospital.

History
Broomfield Hospital, originally known as Essex County Hospital was opened in 1940 as a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. It was due to open in 1937, but this was delayed due to the Second World War. Until 1959 all the patients in the 312 beds were male and length of stay ranged from six months to four years. The hospital was soon working to full capacity and was the only centre for chest surgery for pulmonary tuberculosis in Essex. Towards the end of the World War II ar 50 per cent of patients were ex-service men. The Hospital's first physician superintendent and administrator was Dr William Lyall Yell.

The hospital was built with south facing “butterfly” wings that caught the sun for the benefit of the tuberculosis patients. Even during the winter months patients were wheeled out onto the balconies. Fresh air, bed rest and good food were part of their treatment and a lot of the food for the patients was grown on the hospital farm.

As the incidences of tuberculosis declined, the hospital developed and acute general care gradually became the focus for the hospital. Following the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, the hospital became the responsibility of the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. 1959 saw the first female patients and the delivery of six babies. in 1960 Broomfield became a General Hospital and training for nursing was established at the hospital. During the 1960s the hospital dealt with more general surgery, orthopaedics and general medicine. Extensions to the hospital included a large outpatients clinic, geriatric wards and most wards now had emergency cover.

In 1970 plans were revealed for the first stage of a £3m development for new district general services.

Over the years the hospital has expanded and by the 1980s it included an accident & emergency department, pharmacy, rehabilitation department, operating theatres, intensive therapy unit and new specialised wards. in 1981 Dame Elizabeth Coker, then chairman of the health authority launched a £13m Hospital development. A former concert hall was converted and became a new Medical Academic Centre in 1988.

In 1983 Princess Anne opened the CAT scanner following years of fund raising and returned in 1987 to open a new ward block. Work then started on upgrading the east wing of the hospital and the west wing was demolished the following year.

A new medical academic library was built in 1991 and the following year Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust was formed and full Trust status was achieved. More development work continued throughout the 1990s and clinical space increased by more than fifty per cent. In 1994 Frank Bruno MBE opened the new screening room and mamographic facilities and in November of the same year The Broomfield Dialysis Centre was officially opened. Then Prime Minister John Major, undertook the topping out ceremony in 1996. The new East Wing was officially opened in 1998 by the then Trust Chairman, Sir Jeffery Bowman, former Nurse Tutor Margaret Craig and former consultant anaesthetist Dr David Walmsley and a new Diabetic Centre was opened the same year. A Medical Assessment Unit opened in 1998.

Famous Alumni

 * Debbie Sell - 1954- Pioneering speech and language therapist. Awarded the OBE for services to the National Health Service in 2006