Hospital type Rural general hospital Helipad Yes Website Official Website Number of beds 34 Architect J L Gleave | Emergency department Yes Founded 1863 / 1965 Phone +44 1397 702481 Care system NHS Scotland | |
Location Fort William, Highland, Scotland Address Belford Rd, Fort William PH33 6BS, UK Affiliated university University of Aberdeen School of Medicine and Dentistry Similar Caithness General Hospital, Mackinnon Memorial Hospital, Balfour Hospital, New Craigs Psychiatri, Gilbert Bain Hospital | ||
Belford Hospital, locally known as The Belford, is a rural general hospital in Fort William, Lochaber, Scotland. It is run by NHS Highland. There are 34 inpatient beds and a 10-bedded day case unit.
The Belford provides secondary care to a local population of around 20 000, which can swell up to 60 000 during the summer. Currently, there are Consultant-led general medical and general surgical services. A satellite surgical service is also provided in the Mackinnon Memorial Hospital in Broadford on Skye by surgeons from the Belford.
The emergency department sees around 9000 patients a year making it one of the smallest in Scotland, however due to its proximity to the outdoor activity centres in the Lochaber region sees proportionally a significant amount of trauma prior to transfer to tertiary centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. When the Scottish Executive looked at reorganising rural health care in 2004 there were clear reasons put forward to retain provision of an emergency service at the Belford. Following this there were calls to work more closely with the Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban. In 2006, following the Kerr report, the Belford was designated a rural general hospital.
At the end of November 2009 the surgical and medical wards were merged to form a Combined Assessment Unit (CAU). There are specialist in-patients services for older people, which relocated from the hospital's Belhaven ward to the main building in 2010.
There is also a midwife-led service to provide maternity care. In September 2009 it achieved stage 1 of the baby-friendly accredition programme. Although equipped to perform antenatal ultrasound scans, this service hasn’t been offered at the Belford since June 2012, because of a national shortage of appropriately trained staff.