Crawley Hospital

Crawley Hospital is a National Health Service hospital in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Since 2006 it has been part of the Sussex Community NHS Trust, which has overall management responsibility. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust also provides some services. The hospital is located in the West Green neighbourhood of Crawley, near the town centre. Crawley grew slowly as a small market town until the Second World War. Until 1896, the only medical treatment available was offered in Horsham, away, under the provisions of the various Poor Laws. A cottage hospital with six beds was established that year; by 1913 it had been extended to a nine-bed facility, and there were 12 beds and an operating theatre in 1922. The hospital was paid for by public donations and fundraising; patients paid as much as they could afford for treatment. These premises became too small, and a new "district hospital" was established at Ifield Lodge in West Green—then a mostly residential area west of Crawley High Street—in the 1930s. In 1947, Crawley was selected as one of the sites for the Government's proposed New Towns—planned communities designed to accommodate people moved out of London, which was overcrowded and war-damaged. The master plan allocated land in the southeast of the development area for a large new hospital, and the 1930s facility was expected to be demolished. Both Crawley Urban District Council (the forerunner of the present Borough Council) and Crawley Development Corporation (the body responsible for planning and developing the New town) supported this proposal, but the regional health authority preferred building a new hospital on the existing site. A public inquiry upheld this demand in 1958, and construction work on a new building started the following year. The first part of the building was completed in 1961 or 1962. Extensions were built between 1966 and 1970 and in 1981. Originally, a full range of services was provided: outpatient care, an Accident and Emergency department and a maternity unit.