Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Warrington Hospital

Warrington Hospital

Warrington Hospital is an acute district general hospital with over 500 beds and around 3000 staff. Its services include 24 hour emergency care, maternity care and complex surgery. The accident and emergency department sees over 95,000 patients annually, and over 3,300 babies are born each year in the maternity unit. It is located in Bewsey, just outside of Warrington town centre.

Warrington General Hospital was created from the workhouse in 1898. In 1929 it was renamed Warrington Borough Hospital and to this day is referred to as the Borough by many people. There were two other hospitals on the site; Aikin Street (an infectious diseases hospital) and Whitecross Hospital, which was run by the military.

In 1973 a decision was taken to merge all three hospitals into Warrington District General Hospital. The current hospital has grown in four stages since then.

• Aikin Street was demolished in the 1970s to make way for Appleton Wing of the current hospital (where the A&E, medical wards and theatres are located) which was phase A of the new General.
• Burtonwood Wing opened in 1988 with the stroke, elderly care and children's wards.
• The main building of Whitecross Hospital was demolished in the late 1980s to make way for the Croft Wing which opened in 1994 and houses maternity and women's services.
• The Daresbury Wing opened in 1998 and is surgical unit with single rooms.

In 1993 the government decided to separate the role of health authorities and hospitals and the hospital was handed over from Warrington Health Authority to the newly formed Warrington Hospital NHS Trust. North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust was formed by the merger of Warrington Hospital NHS Trust and Halton General Hospital NHS Trust in 2001.

The hospital has undergone significant development over recent years with a rebuilt accident and emergency and coronary care unit and refurbishment of most of the wards. A new critical care unit costing £6.25 million opened in February 2009 and in late 2010 new endoscopy and eye surgery units opened in the Appleton Wing.