Russells Hall Hospital

Russells Hall Hospital is an NHS general hospital located in Dudley, West Midlands, England, run by The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital is situated south-west of the town centre on the A4101 road, which connects to the Kingswinford area of the borough. It was first planned in the 1960s as a general hospital for Dudley and the surrounding area.

The first phase of the hospital opened in 1976 as a laundry centre for the borough's hospitals, and the general hospital buildings were built within the next five years, but a shortage of equipment meant that it did not open to patients until March 1984, becoming fully operational in May that year. The new hospital included an accident and emergency unit to replace those at the Guest Hospital in Dudley and the Corbett Hospital in Stourbridge. Around this time, the NHS first began to consider the closure of Dudley Guest Hospital.

In 1992, plans were unveiled for Russells Hall to be expanded as part of plans to close Wordsley and Dudley Guest hospitals, as well as parts of the Corbett Hospital. There was much protest against this, and over the next few years there were several amendments to the proposals - including a move which would have seen Wordsley Hospital keep its maternity services but for all other services to relocate to Russells Hall.

In April 1998, however, it was decided that Wordsley Hospital would close completely and Corbett and Dudley Guest would be downsized to out-patient services only, with Russells Hall being expanded to include all of the borough's in-patient services. The first phases of the work were completed in 2004 and the expansion was completed during 2005, by which time Russells Hall had doubled in size. Much of the existing hospital was also refurbished. The Princess Royal opened the revamped hospital on 22 February 2006 – 22 years after she had opened the original hospital.

In preparation for the completion of the expanded hospital and inevitable rise in traffic, the main road towards Dudley town centre - Kingswinford Road - was widened into a dual carriageway in 2003. The car park was also expanded around the same time - a move which saw several houses along High Street demolished in 1999.^[1]

Cricketer Ian Botham, famous for his charity work, opened a state of the art leukaemia unit at the hospital in 1998.^[2]

Pop star and actor Martin Kemp opened the hospital's new CT scanning suite in January 2006, a decade after he recovered from brain cancer with the help of pioneering treatment.^[3]

The hospital now has its own bus station, which gives a direct bus link to Dudley town centre, Brierley Hill, Kingswinford, Stourbridge, Tipton, Wednesbury, and Walsall.

Dudley Hospital Radio

Russells Hall Hospital is currently home to Dudley Hospital Radio which is a free service available to all 722 beds in the hospital. The radio station, which is run as a charity, originally started at the Dudley Guest Hospital in 1976 before moving to Russells Hall in 1999. The radio station is most notably home to the writer and broadcaster Nathan Jolly who joined in 2007.

See also

• List of hospitals in England

References

Coordinates: 52°30′09″N 2°07′09″W / 52.5024°N 2.1191°W / 52.5024; -2.1191