Minehead Community Hospital – the old and the new
The building we now call ‘The Old Hospital’ was designed by James Piers St Aubyn, who was commissioned in the 1860s by the Luttrell Estates to develop a number of projects in the Minehead area. Constructed by Thomas Ponsford (originally as the Town Hall and with a concert hall on the first floor) at a cost of £3,257, the building first opened in June 1889. Later on it became known as Bank House, with part of it used by Lloyds Bank and the rest as council offices.
In 1914, when the First World War began, it became the Minehead Red Cross Hospital staffed by VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses, who cared for convalescent soldiers with help from Minehead Boy Scouts. In 1920 the building was renamed the Minehead and West Somerset Luttrell Memorial Hospital. It then replaced the old Dunster and Minehead Hospital, which had been located in Dunster since 1869. The new hospital had a full complement of nurses, led by Matron Dawson. Between the wars, local architect William Tamlyn undertook major reconstruction, adding an operating theatre, wards and a bed lift. Much later a home for the nursing staff was built. On the outbreak of the Second World War, the hospital became a government-funded treatment centre for service personnel and evacuees.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the hospital became an integral part of healthcare provision for the residents of Minehead and West Somerset. It had in-patient wards, maternity services and childcare, casualty, outpatients and clinics staffed by visiting consultants, as well as occupational therapy and a day hospital for older people.
Nurses and surgical house officers staffed the hospital until 1981, when local GPs took over the running of its small casualty department and 40 beds (primarily elderly care). Outpatient clinics continued with visiting physicians. The local GPs provided this service at the hospital until 2003 when it became a Nurse Led Unit.
At the end of 2006 the Health Minister at the time, Lord Warner, announced funding of £25.4 million to build a new community hospital in Minehead to replace the outdated Victorian building.
Built just off Seaward Way, it promised improved medical facilities, in-patient beds, education and rehabilitation services and a minor injuries unit. At the beginning of 2011 there was an open day and nearly 2000 residents of West Somerset came to visit and admire the new facilities.
The new hospital welcomed its first patients in February 2011.
Minehead Community Hospital – a GP Perspective
Dr Anne Currie writes…
I first came into contact with Minehead Hospital in 1971, when my father, Dr Julian von Bergen, took over the Dunster surgery from Dr Nicholson.
My father believed that the joy of Minehead Hospital was that GPs cared for their own patients. Seriously ill patients were sent to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. However, if they needed extra care, help managing medication or just convalescence, Minehead was the perfect place – with their family GP looking after them.
In 1987, when my husband and I joined my father in the Dunster practice, my husband, Dr Mike Currie, took over the care of our practice’s patients at the hospital, as did a nominated GP in each of the other practices in West Somerset.
With his surgical qualifications, Dr Currie was also appointed to the Minehead surgical team, working in the theatre alongside Dr Nicholson and later with Dr Charlie Pascall. The League of Friends paid for much of the excellent equipment there.
As I had training in anaesthetics, I also worked in the theatre during operations for minor surgery. Alas, eventually general anaesthetics were forbidden because of concerns about risk, so now only surgery under local anaesthetic continues. Various specialist consultants from Taunton undertook clinics at Minehead, much as they do today, and this was an opportunity for local GPs to seek advice from the consultants.
Changes to GP contracts and the reorganisation of the NHS in 2003 mean that GPs are no longer permitted to provide care at community hospitals. However, a minor injuries unit staffed by advanced nurse practitioners was set up in2011 when the new hospital opened.
Friends of Minehead Hospital 