3 October 2024

We reached a double milestone this week with teams at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust celebrating 10 years since the trust was formed and the 50th birthday of Frimley Park Hospital.

Frimley Health was founded on 1 October 2014, when Frimley Park Hospital and Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals joined together in the first ever acquisition of one NHS foundation trust by another.

In 2014, Frimley Park NHS FT was the only ‘excellent’ rated trust in the NHS while Heatherwood and Wexham Park NHS FT was in financial difficulties and in need of investment. Managers realised both trusts could benefit from working together as one organisation and after a period of consultation Frimley Health was born.

A decade later, Frimley Health has around 12,000 permanent staff and an annual turnover of more than £1Bn, and has undergone some remarkable transformations aimed at delivering better, more joined up care for patients. Its state of the art services include pioneering robot assisted surgery, AI assisted diagnostics, a leading heart attack centre, and is part of one of the biggest and most advanced NHS pathology networks.

In addition to marking a decade of Frimley Health, staff were also celebrating fifty years of Frimley Park Hospital which opened in 1974.

Part of the celebrations involved some of the original staff and patients being invited back to the hospital as ‘honoured guests’. Teresa Myall was one of the first student nurses to work at Frimley Park and went on to have a long career working in intensive care and cardiology.

Teresa said:  “I retired six years ago but I still really miss my job. I have a huge regard for Frimley and of course have seen it grow over time into the centre of excellence which it is today.  It will always remain very close to my heart, not only because of my 42-year nursing career but also my three children were born here.” 

Sue Foster, was the first patient in maternity at the hospital. She gave birth to her daughter, Nicky, in Farnham Hospital and was brought to Frimley the following day by ambulance. Sue has also dedicated much of her life to Frimley Park, having volunteered in the hospital shop for the past 41 years.

Sue said: "When we arrived, the staff gave us a round of applause as I was the first patient on the unit. There was a lot of excitement on the day, I remember news reporters and photographers being around and the nurses being thrilled that they had a patient to care for. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years but the one thing that has remained the same is the sense of community among staff, we’re still the Frimley family. "

Among the Trust’s achievements and milestones since 2014 are:

October 2014: Frimley Health was founded to bring together services at Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley, Wexham Park Hospital near Slough, Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, community services in north-east Hampshire and Surrey Heath and outpatient and diagnostic services at several satellite centres.

February 2016: Following a comprehensive inspection, healthcare regulators the Care Quality Commission said the ‘remarkable’ improvement in care at Wexham Park Hospital after the merger was the most impressive turnaround it has seen.

April 2019: Wexham Park new £49m emergency department and urgent care centre open – one of a number of significant investments at Wexham Park that including a major upgrade of maternity services and car park extension.

February 2020: The start of the Covid-19 pandemic saw services across the trust transformed overnight to focus on the worldwide threat. Over the coming months Frimley Health had among the highest numbers of Covid patients in the NHS.

March 2022: The fantastic new Heatherwood Hospital was opened after a £100m building project, replacing the old hospital site which had become unsustainable after a century of service to the community. The new Heatherwood has since become one of the best planned care and surgical centres in the country.

June 2022: Our new trust-wide single electronic patient record, brought together over 200 legacy databases into one system, launched and is revolutionising the way care is provided for patients with fasters, more joined up care and enabling better links between hospital and community care.

March 2023: Planning permission granted for a new £49m diagnostic and inpatient facility at Frimley Park, which is due to open in early 2025. Six months later permission was also granted for a new community diagnostic centre in Slough to help meet demand for patient tests and imaging.

May 2023: Frimley Park Hospital, which was originally building using a type of concrete that is known to deteriorate over time, was added to the Government’s New Hospital Programme, ensuring its long-term future with a new hospital to replace Frimley Park when it is no longer structurally sustainable.

About Frimley Park 50 years:

• From the postwar early days of the NHS it was recognised that secondary medical services in the area were inadequate. Plans were made to develop a new hospital that would replace six surrounding cottage hospitals and modernise services.
• Plans were drawn up to the Ministry ‘Best Buy Hospital’ design but crucially Frimley Park, along with several other hospitals built in England around this time, was constructed with the RAAC planks that are now reaching the end of their useful life.
• In the late 1980s and early 1990s numerous extensions were made to the side and back of the hospital including the postgraduate centre and library, extra wards, private suite (Parkside) and medica records building. In later years a heart attack centre & cardiology wing, eye clinic and operating theatres were added.
• In 1996, following the closure of the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, Frimley Park became host to the Military of Defence Hospital Unit, starting an ongoing partnership with military staff working side by side with NHS colleagues. The proud association continues to this day.
• In 2004 the hospital trust’s bid to become one of the first of the new foundation trusts met with success and in April 2005 Frimley Park Hospital because the first general acute hospital foundation trust in the south east region – with more autonomy to plan and deliver services that patients needed.
• In the Noughties demand on urgent care grew to the extent that could not be sustained in the current building and in 2012 a new emergency department (one of the first in the UK to have separate rooms in Majors) was completed with a new Day surgery unit on the first floor and helipad on the roof.
• In 2014 the hospital became the first in the country to be recognised as ‘outstanding’ by inspectors from the health care regulator the Care Quality Commission.