Medical dates:

Medical character:

In 1948 The Dene, a former school, became an annexe for the Caterham and District Hospital.  It had 29 beds and, together with its parent hospital, was under the control of the Redhill Group Hospital Management Commitee, part of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.

In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital came under the administration of the East Surrey District Health Authority, part of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority.

The Hospital was soon threatened with closure, but an action group - the Friends of the Dene - began a successful fund-raising campaign to keep it open.

In 1986 the parent hospital closed, but its annexe continued as the Caterham Dene Hospital.  It had 31 beds for acute, geriatric and G.P. cases.

In 1993, with the introduction of the 'marketplace' system in the NHS, the Hospital joined the East Surrey Healthcare NHS Trust.  It had 25 beds for geriatric and G.P. patients.

In 1998 the Hospital had 20 beds, mainly receiving elderly patients from the East Surrey Hospital who were in need of a period of recuperation following surgery before returning home.

In 1999 it came under the administration of the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and, in 2002, under the East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust.  The Hospital was then leased back to its former Trust for a year so that arrangements could be made for the development of services at the Hospital.  At the end of that year, the staff were then contracted to work for the Primary Care Trust.

By 2006 it had become a community hospital with 28 beds, an X-ray Department, and Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Departments.  A mental health unit - the Conifers Mental Health Resource Centre - had opened in a new building, run by the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.


Present status (July 2008)

The original Dene building is now a geriatric hospital, while the new building houses a psychiatric unit and a Physiotherapy Department.

Update: March 2015

In June 2010 six of the beds were closed as a money-saving measure.  The Conifers Mental Health Resource Centre closed when the mental health Trust moved its clinics elsewhere.

In 2011 a Walk-In Centre opened.

In 2012 the Conifers building, which had remained empty for two years,  was refurbished so that it could be used for offices for the Hospital and the contraception services provided by Virgin Care, which relocated from East Surrey Hospital.

The Hospital is now run by First Community Health and Care, a not-for-profit organisation.  It has 28 beds in three wards for patients aged 18 years or over who require a period of rehabilitation after illness, injury or for certain conditions, a Minor Injuries Unit, a Rapid Assessment Clinic and an Out-Patients Department which provides investigations, including blood tests and X-rays, and Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Departments.