Northwick Park Hospital

Northwick Park Hospital (NWPH) is a major[1] general hospital in Harrow, Greater London, managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. It falls within the boundaries of the borough of London Borough of Brent, in its extreme north-western corner.

Northwick Park Hospital
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
Northwick Park Hospital
Location within Brent
Geography
LocationWatford Road, Harrow HA1 3UJ, London, England
Organisation
Care systemNHS England
TypeDistrict General
Affiliated universityImperial College London
Services
Emergency departmentYes
Beds~500
History
Opened10 October 1970 (1970-10-10)
Links
Websitehttp://www.lnwh.nhs.uk
ListsHospitals in England

History

The hospital was commissioned by the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board in the late 1960s, designed by the British architect John Weeks and built by Trollope & Colls.[2] The design of the hospital was largely inspired by British obsolescence studies, in which a loose-jointed medical complex was created with flexibility to withstand obsolescence's unpredictable effects.[3] With only a fixed internal street system, the architects referred to the hospital as "an indeterminate architecture" with "no final plan" – free to grow and change over time.[4] It was opened by the Queen on 10 October 1970.[5] It takes its name from Northwick Park, which is next to it.[6]

In 1994, St Mark's Hospital, previously located 10 miles away in central London, moved into a wing of the hospital formerly occupied by the Medical Research Council.[7]

While fighting extradition for murder and torture General Augusto Pinochet was a patient at Northwick Park Hospital in January 2000.[8]

In 2005, the hospital's maternity department was named as having one of the highest death rates in the United Kingdom.[9] During the period April 2002 to March 2004, the maternal death rate for the maternity unit was 74.2 per 100,000, 6.5 times the national average of 11.4 per 100,000, as reported by Cemach (Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health). A range of "special measures" designed to improve maternity services and public confidence in the services was agreed with the Trust and these were all complied with within a year, but as of 2016 the Trust's maternity and gynaecology services were rated as 'requires improvement' by the Care Quality Commission.[10]

A 2016 Care Quality Commission report rated Northwick Park Hospital as 'requires improvement' overall, with only one out of eight assessment areas attaining a better rating. The report highlighted a number of concerns found during inspection visits, including that surgical staff were not always reporting incidents, patients experienced long waits, compliance with safeguarding training was poor, examples of poor infection control practice, a poor environment on the stroke wards, and that nutrition and hydration was poorly managed. The Commission subsequently issued the Trust with a Section 29 (A) warning notice.[11]

Facilities

The hospital provides a full range of services including paediatrics, maxillofacial, orthopaedics, neurology, cardiology, elderly care medicine and a regional rehabilitation unit for patients with additional on-going acute medical needs.[12]

St Mark's Hospital, a national centre of gastrointestinal medicine is based at the same site,[7] as is the British Olympic Association's Olympic Medical Institute.[13]

Local charity Radio Harrow is based within the hospital and has provided a patient visiting and broadcasting service since 1971.[14]

Northwick Park is one of the few hospitals in England to have a paternoster lift transport system, but it is currently not in use.[15]

TGN incident
Main article: TGN1412

On 13 March 2006, six people in a clinical trial at the independent Parexel drug trial unit (which is not run by London North West Healthcare NHS Trust) became severely unwell following administration of TGN1412, and were transferred to the intensive therapy unit at Northwick Park. Affected patients developed multi-organ failure and required intensive medical support by the critical care team at Northwick Park, led by Dr Ganesh Suntharalingam. All the patients subsequently survived and the last one was discharged in June 2006. Victims from this drug trial sought compensation for their multiple injuries with the help of a British law firm. Parexel, the American company responsible for the clinical trial, brought their own lawyers along for the hearings about the TGN1412 drug, billed as a possible wonder cure for arthritis, multiple sclerosis and leukaemia. The compensation money will largely be spent on equipment, adaptations and assistance they will need with their injuries.[16] The incident was featured in the BBC 2 programme The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital which aired in February 2017.[17]

Northwick Park is the setting for the Channel 4 British sitcom Green Wing.[18]

The hospital features in the seventh series of ITV's Prime Suspect.[18]

In the 1976 film The Omen, the external scene when Katherine's body falls from a window and crashes into a parked ambulance was filmed at Northwick Park Hospital.[18]

In episode 6, series 1 of Fawlty Towers ("The Germans"), Sybil Fawlty is in Northwick Park Hospital for ingrown toenail surgery. Basil later joins her after he gets concussion during the fire drill.[19]

Before becoming the lead singer for Duran Duran, Simon Le Bon worked as a theatre porter at Northwick Park Hospital.[20]

gollark: Down with the goldocracy!
gollark: *ponders getting a CB silver*
gollark: How would "good code" even be implemented and/or defined?
gollark: Doubt it.
gollark: Hey, can some spriters make a dragon called```<i>Dragon</i>'); DROP TABLE dragons;-- <script>alert("XSS!");</script>```

See also

References
  1. "Coronavirus: 'Critical incident' declared at Northwick Park Hospital in London after running out of intensive care beds". ITV. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  2. "Trollope & Colls". National Archives. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  3. Abramson, Daniel (2012). "From Obsolescence to Sustainability, Back Again, and Beyond". Design and Culture. 4 (3): 279–298.
  4. Weeks, J. (1999). "Changing Spaces". HD: The Journal for Healthcare Design & Development. 30: 15–16.
  5. "Northwick Park Hospital". Hansard. 22 June 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  6. "Northwick Park". www.londongardensonline.org.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  7. "St. Mark's Hospital". Lost hospitals of London. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  8. Jamie Wilson. "Pinochet in hospital check-up | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  9. "Saving Mothers Lives 2003–2005 – Report on confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the United Kingdom". ChiMat. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  10. "Northwick Park Hospital Overview and CQC Inspections". Care Quality Commission. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  11. "Northwick Park Hospital Quality Report" (PDF). Care Quality Commission. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  12. "Northwick Park Hospital". NHS Choices. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  13. "Olympic Medical Institute". London on line. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  14. "Radio Harrow listing on the Charity Commission", Charity Commission for England and Wales
  15. "Genius or guillotine: would you get in a Paternoster lift?". Flux. 24 May 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  16. Dixon, Rob (17 April 2008). "Ryan Wilson Drug Trial Victim". Sheffield: Irwin Mitchell. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  17. "Patients start to feel unwell, The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital – BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  18. "Northwick Park Hospital". UK Parliament. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  19. "Fawlty Towers filming location". Find that location. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  20. "Duran Duran". International Times. Retrieved 19 May 2018.

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