Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was established on 1 April 2005. The predecessor trust (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) had been formed in 2002 following the merger of Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust and Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
We were the first trust in the county to be awarded “teaching hospitals” status.
Prior to 1893 Chorley, like any other Lancashire industrial town, had its own dispensary. It was here that local residents obtained medical advice and drugs, although treatment was always at home, by family members.
In 1892, Alderman Henry Rawcliffe met with the Board of Directors of the dispensary, and his proposal to build a cottage hospital in Chorley was put to a vote. 32 votes were cast in favour of the cottage hospital, whilst 52 votes were against. Rawcliffe’s revised proposal to incorporate the dispensary in the cottage hospital was accepted, and Chorley Hospital opened on 9 September 1893.
The foundation stone of an additional section, the Winstanley Wing, was laid in August 1899 and officially opened on 19 September 1900.
During the 1920s, the demand for hospital facilities increased. Proposals were considered to extend the present facilities, but the estimated cost of £46,000 was considered too expensive. The committee decided to build a new hospital.
Land was purchased, and Bolton architects Bradshaw, Gass and Hope began work to build the new hospital in 1931. The ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone took place on 11 June 1932 and on 2 September 1933, 47 years after the opening of the first Chorley Hospital, Chorley and District Hospital was formally opened.
A new 'Accident and Emergency Unit' was opened on 27 December 1957.
Further plans and proposals for an extension to Chorley Hospital were submitted in December 1962. In 1976 the new Psycho-Geriatric Unit and X-Ray Department were completed.
In September 1976 a decision was made to close the Childrens Ward, however after a public campaign that involved a visit from the leader of the opposition, Margaret Thatcher, it was confirmed in 1979 the ward would remain open, but would provide care for older children who did not require paediatric specialist services. The Childrens Ward closed in 1984, and was converted to a Day Care Unit.
A new 'Casualty Department and Elderly Medicine Unit' opened in 1989.
On 31 March 1992 the first sod was cut to start the building of a significant extension, and the hospital achieved Trust status in 1993. HRH Princess Anne officially opened Chorley and South Ribble District General Hospital on 28 April 1997.
On 1 August 2002 Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust and Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust merged to form Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and became a foundation trust in 2005.
In 1962 the Government published “A Hospital Plan for England and Wales” which proposed that the future pattern of hospital services should be based on district general hospitals of 600 to 800 beds and where specialist skills and facilities could be concentrated on one site. The plan recommended that a new district general hospital, with regional specialities, should be built in Preston, as the main conurbation in the North West outside Manchester.
In 1975 work began on phase one of the hospital building, which included an 'Accident and Emergency Department' and 'Outpatients Department'.
In 1977 work on the second phase of wards and theatres began, and the third phase, staff residential accommodation, followed soon after.
The hospital’s first patient was treated on 12 January 1981 in the outpatient Physiotherapy Department. Many services transferred to the new hospital during the next few months and years. Royal Preston Hospital was officially opened on 1 June 1983 by Her Royal Highness, Diana, The Princess of Wales.
Royal Preston Hospital continued to expand and in 1985 a £1.5 million regional kidney unit was opened. The hospital opened its first satellite kidney dialysis unit at Accrington Victoria Hospital in 1989.
A new medical library in the Neurosurgical Department, which formed the basis of a leading research facility and promoted neuroscience education and research in Preston, opened in 1990.
Philip Schofield opened the Children’s Clinic in 1994, the same year in which the
Chris Chell Endoscopy Unit and a new Pathology Laboratory opened.
In 1994 Royal Preston Hospital and Sharoe Green Hospital officially became Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
A new dedicated Day Case Surgery Unit opened in January 1996, and the Rosemere Cancer Foundation was established the following year. The Cancer Centre was formally designated as a regional speciality in 1999.
On 1 August 2002 Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust and Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust merged to form Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
HRH The Princess Royal officially opened the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) Centre in 2002.
A new £17m maternity and gynaecology unit opened at Royal Preston Hospital in September 2004, resulting in the closure of Sharoe Green Hospital. In the same year a new £6m Medical Rehabilitation Unit opened.
Professor Sir Liam Donaldson opened a state-of-the-art Education Centre in 2004.
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust became a foundation trust in 2005.
Sharoe Green Hospital opened in 1869 and was originally owned and managed by Preston Borough Council.
As the years progressed, the hospital had staff and facilities covering various specialties, including infectious diseases, mental health and maternity services. It was also a workhouse hospital until 1929.
An extension was built in 1968 and by 1973 there were new gynaecology, plastic surgery, coronary care and orthopaedics wards, a suite of operating theatres, a sterile supplies department, pharmacy, nurse training school and more staff residential accommodation.
On 1 April 1974 the ownership of the hospital was transferred from the Preston and Chorley Hospital Management Committee (which had run Sharoe Green Hospital since 1948) to the Lancashire Area Health Authority.
In 1976 work began to build a new construction began on a Day Case Surgery Unit.
By 1980, Sharoe Green was a substantial 500-bedded general hospital with facilities for general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, acute psychiatric treatment (including a day hospital and outpatients), paediatric medicine, a department for elderly medicine and a young disabled unit. The hospital was also a sub-regional centre for plastic surgery and had a very busy outpatients department.
Many services moved to the new Royal Preston Hospital from 1981, and psychiatric services transferred during the following four years. In 1994 Sharoe Green Hospital and Royal Preston Hospital together became Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
Sharoe Green Hospital closed in 2004.
