** About Us **
Musgrove Park Hospital is part of Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.
We are the largest General Hospital in Somerset and serve a population of over 340,000. Each year 34,000 patients are admitted as emergencies; 10,000 patients are admitted for elective surgery; 28,000 are seen for day case surgery; 300,000 outpatient appointments are held; 49,000 attend Accident and Emergency, 3,000 babies are born in the Maternity Department and 170,000 diagnostics tests are carried out.
We have an annual budget for 2010/11 of £230m. The hospital has over 700 beds, 15 operating theatres, an Intensive Care and High Dependency Unit, a Medical Admissions Unit, a fully equipped Diagnostic Imaging Department and a specialised Children’s Department including a Paediatric High Dependency Bay. Musgrove Park also provides Neonatal Intensive Care for all of Somerset. We employ about 4000 staff.
Musgrove Park has three clear priorities: Patient Safety, Patient Experience and Making the Most of Musgrove. We are committed to the safest possible patient care; the best possible experience for patients with us and making the very best of the resources we have.
History Of Musgrove Park Hospital
The 67th General Hospital was authorised on 3 March 1941, and activated 1 September 1942 as an American Army Hospital and occupied by the U.S. Army Medical Corps.
After the war, it continued in use as a Ministry of Pensions Hospital and only became a General Hospital within the National Health Service in 1951. The famous Oregon Pine Tree was planted in front of the Old Building by the Americans and it has certainly grown well in our Somerset soil over the years and can still be seen standing proudly today!
Many events took place over the years that affected staff and patients in unusual ways. Two of these took place in 1978, which was eventful for many and gained considerable publicity – the great snow of February 1978 and the train disaster of July 1978.
The helicopter became a familiar sight during the snow siege – the first landed at very short notice, bringing a patient with a head injury – an unusual group of staff carried him from the helicopter to the hospital through deep snowdrifts. After a few days, these flights became routine, bringing in mothers in labour and taking out supplies to smaller hospitals.
Every hospital has its Red Letter days – special occasions anticipated and honoured.
Two such for Musgrove were visits by H.R.H. Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1959: and by H.R.H. Princess Anne in 1970, when she opened the Intensive Therapy Unit. The Intensive Therapy Unit was paid for by the League of Friends of Taunton Hospitals as the first of many major projects undertaken.
A full photographic record produced by The League of Friends, Taunton Hospital in the 1970s, which will take you through the history of the hospital can be found in the reference section of Taunton Library.
With thanks to the League of Friends, Taunton Hospital for the above information.
