Medical dates:

Medical character:

Staines Cottage Hospital, built by the Staines Urban District Council, opened on 9th May 1914.

On 6th August 1927 a new extension opened.  It contained a male ward, a private patient's room and an Out-Patients Department.  The Linoleum Manufacturing Company, a local firm, had donated the whole of the linoleum necessary for the floor of the new building.  The operating theatre in the main building had also been enlarged.  The Hospital then had 28 beds.

In 1928 the Hospital Silver Paper Collection Committee reported that 3 cwt (153 kilos) of tin foil ('silver paper') had been collected and sold for £6 14s 11d (£6.75).  (Silver paper from chocolate bars and cigarette packets, toothpaste tubes, metal milk bottle tops and other tin, lead, brass and silver items were collected by supporters of many voluntary hospitals and sold to metal merchants.  In 1929 tin fetched from £200-£250 a ton.)

In 1929 some 714 in-patients were treated, of whom 129 had been involved in road traffic accidents.  Some patients were transferred to King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor, for whom the Hospital paid 6 shillings (30p) a day towards their maintenance.

At the beginning of WW2 in 1939 the Hospital joined the Emergency Medical Service.

In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Staines Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Health Board.  It had 35 beds.  The word 'Cottage' had been dropped from its name.

During 1949, on average, only 24 of its 35 beds were occupied, a rate of 69%.

The floors in the two large wards were renewed and bed curtains were added to one of the wards.  Following other improvements and internal and external redecoration, in July 1950 the Hospital became the gynaecological annexe to the Ashford Hospital, some one and a half miles away.  However, it retained its own name.

In 1953 the perimeter fence, which had been removed during the war, was replaced.

In 1954 the Hospital had 32 beds which, on average, 27 were occupied throughout the year, a rate of 84%.

In December 1958 an Out-Patients Department was built as a sop to the local public who resented the change of use by the Regional Hospital Board of their general hospital to a gynaecological unit.  The new building had cost £12,000 and was intended for both male and female patients.  It had a Casualty Department for minor injuries and a Physiotherapy Department.

In 1961 bed curtains were added to the second large ward and one of the rooms freed up by the new Out-Patients Department was converted into a Day Room with a television for the in-patients.  A telephone trolley was provided by the Staines Hospital Friendly League.  During 1961 the bed occupancy rate was 75%.

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

In 1975 the Hospital closed temporarily while it was converted into a unit for geriatric patients.  It then had 26 beds.

It closed in 1980.


Present status (March 2009)

The building was demolished in 1986.  Its site is now occupied by Fairmead, a residential centre for adults with learning disabilities.  It contains Bramdean and Kingscroft and is run by the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.