Luton and Dunstable University Hospital is an acute hospital in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

, England, run by

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS foundation trust formed on 1 April 2020. It runs Bedford Hospital and Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. History The trust was formed on 1 April 2020 by the acquisition of Bedford H ...

. It provides medical and surgical services for over 350,000 people in southern Bedfordshire, the north of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

and parts of

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

. The hospital is often abbreviated to the 'L&D', and employs 3,400 staff.

History

The hospital has its origins in the Bute Hospital, which was built on land donated by the

Marquis of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart was the member of a family that ...

(who lived locally at Luton Hoo) on Dunstable Road in

and which opened in September 1882. Although the facility was enlarged by two new wards in July 1902 and by a further extension in July 1912 there was little room for further expansion. Ten acres of land, situated in the countryside between

and

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is t ...

were purchased from

Electrolux Electrolux AB () is a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm. It is consistently ranked the world's second largest appliance maker by units sold, after Whirlpool. Electrolux products sell under a variety ...

and a new hospital was built. The hospital was opened by Queen Mary on 14 February 1939. The wards in the new hospital were named after Queen Mary, Lady Ludlow from Luton Hoo and Arthur Buckingham, a Dunstable grocer who had bequeathed £4,000 towards the cost of the hospital. The hospital joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

in 1948. The

Duchess of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

visited the Disability Resource Centre in July 1996 and

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of ...

opened the new St Mary's Wing Rehabilitation Centre in February 2003. After the facility became a teaching hospital for

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in March 2012, the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...

opened a new state-of-the-art cardiac centre there in February 2013.

Patient safety

Luton and Dunstable has been a Safer Patient Initiative site since 2004. Reducing the hospital's

mortality rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of d ...

was a priority for Chief Executive Stephen Ramsden, who believed that saving patient lives must be at the top of all chief executives' agendas. Stephen Ramsden was appointed the director of the National Patient Safety Campaign, after the hospital won the Health Foundation's Safer Patients Initiative. He also received an OBE for services to healthcare. 99% of A&E patients are treated within the target 4 hours. A '' BBC'' article maintains other hospitals can learn from Luton and Dunstable. It was named by the

Health Service Journal ''Health Service Journal'' (''HSJ'') is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. History The '' Poor Law Officers' Journal'' was established in 1892. In 1930, it changed its name after ...

as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. At that time it had 3323 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 3.25%. 67% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 60% recommended it as a place to work.

CQC evaluation

The

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

rated Luton and Dunstable Hospital as "good" overall in June 2016.

References

External links

*
Inspection reports
from the

{{authority control Hospitals in Bedfordshire Hospital buildings completed in 1882 Hospital buildings completed in 1902 Hospital buildings completed in 1939 NHS hospitals in England Luton Dunstable

History

Patient safety

CQC evaluation

See also

References

Further reading

External links