Chelsea and Westminster Hospital

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a public hospital located on Fulham Road, in the Chelsea area of London, England.

History

The new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital was opened on the site once occupied by St Stephen's Hospital, and brought together staff, services and equipment from five London hospitals:

The Westminster hospital in Horseferry Road (previously situated opposite Westminster Abbey) and its medical school in Page Street

Westminster Children's hospital , originally in Vincent Square, then later amalgamated with the Westminster

West London hospital, opened in 1860 and known from the early 1970s for its maternity services

St Mary Abbots hospital, an infirmary occupying the site of what had been the Kensington work house

St Stephen's hospital

The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital was designed by the architects Sheppard Robson. The hospital displays many treasures from the old hospitals. Some of these are in the first floor Hospital Chapel, including an 16th century painting by Veronese from the Westminster Hospital and stained glass windows from Westminster , St Mary Abbots and the Westminster Children's Hospitals.

The hospital is managed by the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Services

Chelsea and Westminster maintains a full range of medical and surgical acute services, as well as outpatient facilities and a 24 hour Accident and Emergency department. In addition to these services, which are primarily aimed at local residents and visitors, the hospital is a specialist tertiary referral centre for a number of services including HIV and Genitourinary Medicine, Burns and Bariatric Surgery.

Hand Trauma

The hospital provides a number of services which include a specialist hand surgery/management unit sometimes known as HMU.

Access to these services is often made via GP referral. However, various A&E departments can make urgent tertiary referrals.

HIV / GUM

The hospital’s HIV / GUM Clinical Directorate was established in April, 1991 , and is today the largest specialist HIV unit in Europe , caring for more than 5,000  HIV patients, and enjoys a worldwide reputation as a centre of excellence in both the care of HIV-positive patients and a wide range of associated clinical research. Its director, Professor Brian Gazzard , is one of the world's leading authorities on HIV, founded the British HIV Association, serves as Chairman of the British HIV Guidelines Writing Committee, and is a member of both the Scientific Committee of the World AIDS Congress and of the IAS USA Guidelines Committee.

The St Stephen’s Centre at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital is also home to the core laboratory of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). 

Education

In 1984, Westminster Hospital Medical School merged with the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School to form Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. This was part of a series of mergers of London medical schools in the early 1980s, foreshadowing a larger series in the late 1990s, which brought all the institutes together into five large schools. In 1997, as part of the second wave, CXWMS merged with Imperial College, London (and its medical department, St Mary's Hospital Medical School), the National Heart and Lung Institute, and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, to form Imperial College School of Medicine

Chelsea & Westminster Hospital maintains strong ties with Imperial College School of Medicine and is a teaching hospital for students undergoing clinical attachments in various specialties.

Trust

The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 October 2006[8]. It is based at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and also manages a number of sexual health clinics at 56 Dean Street, the West London Centre for Sexual Health at Charing Cross Hospital, and the St Stephen's Centre. The Trust's chief executive is Heather Lawerence and its chairman is Professor Sir Christopher Edwards.

(source:wikipedia)