Funding Public hospital Closed 21 September 2011 Founded 1934 Care system National Health Service | Hospital type District General Number of beds 281 Phone +44 1892 526111 | |
Location Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, United Kingdom Emergency department Yes Accident & Emergency Address Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8AT, UK Similar Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Nuffield Health Tunbridg, Crowboro War Memorial, Queen Victoria Hospital, Kent Community Health | ||
The Kent and Sussex Hospital was a district general hospital located on Mount Ephraim in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England serving the West Kent and East Sussex areas. It closed on 21 September 2011 and was replaced by The Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, nearly three miles from the town.
Contents
The hospital provided 281 beds., mostly in "Nightingale" wards, i.e. with rows of beds on either side of the room.
History
The Kent and Sussex Hospital was built on the site of a mansion called Great Culverden House, designed by Decimus Burton.
The hospital building was designed by Cecil Burns, a local architect, and opened in 1934. The foundation stone had been laid in 1932 by the contemporary Duchess of York, later to become Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The original building was surrounded by lawns on three sides, but the hospital has expanded upwards and outwards several times over the decades. This included the installation of six wartime emergency huts shortly after the hospital's completion; four of these huts were still in use as wards when the hospital closed, on 21 September 2011.
Services
Services available at the hospital prior to its closure included:
Future of the hospital site
Planning permission was granted to redevelop the hospital site for a mix of housing, offices and a school in December 2012. This development is now under construction.