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Whipps Cross
Post War and Beyond
A tablet was erected to commemorate
the Royal Visit and is the only
reminder of the First World War
in the hospital today. It reads:
"This tablet was erected to commemorate
the visit of Their Majesties King George
V & Queen Mary with H.R.H. Princess
Mary, to this Infirmary and War Hospital
on Saturday, November 17th 1917, when
Their Majesties visited the wounded soldiers
and the Queen presented the medals and
certificates of training to the nurses."
The hospital was modernised in time
for the 2012 Olympic and Para Olympic
Games, and nurses from the hospital took
part in the memorable opening scene
featuring the Mary Poppins character.
The future of the hospital is now in
question as debate over the best way
to offer care to those in need suggests
that some services should be taken from
hospitals and offered instead by GP’s.
Public opposition has ensured Whipps
Cross maintains its current facilities
but the problem of how to provide
health care in the future continues.
Into the new millennium the hospital
faced serious financial crisis but was
saved from a severe reduction in nursing
staff by opposition from the public.
After the war Whipps Cross went
through a long period of development,
becoming an approved nurse training
and examination centre and in the
same period appointing specialists in
dermatology, ophthalmology, ear nose
and throat and genito-urinary medicine.
Following the Local Government Act of
1929, management of Whipps Cross passed
from the Board of Guardians to the
Public Assistance Committee of West
Ham Borough Council. It later came
under the management of the NHS
(National Health Service) in 1948.
Top Image: Whipps Cross Hospital opening of the new extension the to the X Ray Physio Therapy Department. ©Newham Archives.
Whipps Cross added an outpatient
department in 1958 and ten years later
an intensive care unit opened followed
by an accident and emergency and
maternity unit. Connaught Day Hospital
for the elderly was opened in the 1970’s.
In 1992 Whipps Cross became a University
Hospital, and is now a part of Barts Health
NHS Trust. Is it is known for being the first
hospital to open an intensive care unit
and for many years had one of the busiest
accident and emergency departments.
Whipps Cross 2014.
Whipps Cross sign, 2014.
“With all the changes everything was being
centralized and Whipps Cross was a district
general hospital and everybody had to go there.”
- Ruth