Lincoln County Hospital is a large district general hospital on the eastern edge of north-east Lincoln, England. It is the largest hospital in Lincolnshire, and offers the most comprehensive services in Lincolnshire. It is managed by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
History
Early history The hospital has its origins in some rented accommodation in St Swithin's which opened in November 1769. A purpose-built facility was designed by John Carr and William Lumby and built in Drury Lane between 1776 and 1777.
Following issues with the nursing care, the Ladies' Nursing Fund Committee was established in 1864 to provide a better quality of nursing staff to the hospital. This arrangement only lasted for three years, but the Bromhead Institution for Nurses and the Bromhead Nursing Home became well established in Lincoln.
A new site was identified on Sewell Road and purchased in 1875. A new building, designed by Alexander Graham, was built on the new site and completed in 1878. The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948.
Construction Charles Pelham, 4th Earl of Yarborough opened a new X-ray department on Friday 7 April 1922.Times Saturday April 8 1922, page 9
In the late 1930s £100,000 of buildings were added in two stages. The first stage cost £57,000, completed by April 1939.Times Tuesday April 18 1939, page 17
Construction work, undertaken by Shepherd Building Group on a maternity unit commenced on site on 2 May 1966. It involved 112 beds, including 78 consultant beds, 26 general practitioner beds, and eight private patients beds. There was also a delivery suite. The unit had a special care unit with 21 cots on the sixth floor, an ante-natal clinic, and midwifery training school on the ground floor. The total cost was £800,000.Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 16 March 1967, page 7 The seven-storey maternity unit was opened by Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon on 4 December 1968,Lincolnshire Echo Wednesday 4 December 1968, page 6Sleaford Standard Friday 6 December 1968, page 1 who later visited Scunthorpe.Times Thursday December 5 1968, page 13
Construction of phase one of the main hospital, undertaken by Shepherd Building Group, began at the end of July 1981.Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 10 July 1979, page 7 There were two main buildings, with 112 beds.Lincolnshire Echo Wednesday 24 June 1981, page 1 Phase one cost £16.7m and involved four new operating theatres. Some 150 more staff were needed, with one hundred more nurses. At the time, it was difficult to find enough experienced theatre staff.Lincolnshire Echo Saturday 1 December 1984, page 4 It opened to the public in April 1985, after ward staff and theatre staff moved from St George's Hospital.Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 4 April 1985, page 9 Phase one was officially opened on the morning of 23 July 1985 by Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana had arrived at RAF Scampton in a Hawker Siddeley Andover, with two thousand people lining the route from Scampton.Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 23 July 1985, page 1Grimsby Daily Telegraph Tuesday 23 July 1985, page 1 Diana later visited North Hykeham in the afternoon.Times Wednesday July 24 1985, page 14
Construction of Phase Two of the hospital, undertaken by Higgs and Hill Northern, started on 7 December 1989.Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 5 June 1990, page 23Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 1 December 1992, page 39 It involved a series of surgical wards, six operating theatres, and a new A&E. There were 168 new acute beds.Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 7 December 1989, page 9Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 5 December 1989, page 25 Phase two was completed at a cost of £24 million. It partly opened to the public in mid-February 1993 and fully opened to the public in April 1993.Lincolnshire Echo Monday 11 January 1993, page 11Lincolnshire Echo Monday 15 February 1993, page 2 It was officially opened by Princess Anne on the afternoon of 15 September 1993,Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 13 July 1993, page 9Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 16 September 1993, page 1 having earlier visited Willoughby, Lincolnshire and North Somercotes.Times Thursday September 16 1993, page 18
The Lincolnshire Department of Oncology was opened by Princess Alexandra on the afternoon of Wednesday October 10 2001.Times Thursday October 11 2001, page 22
The Princess Royal opened a new extension on the afternoon of Wednesday 16 March 2005, after earlier visiting Hough-on-the-Hill and Sleaford.Times Thursday March 17 2005, page 65
Recent history The Lincoln Hospitals' Radio Service, which first broadcast from St George's Hospital in December 1979, moved to Lincoln County Hospital in 1988. Its founder, Ray Drury, had been a cartoonist with the Daily Express.
On 5 November 1975, 10 year old Stephen Jackson-Parr, of Mayfield Avenue in Gainsborough, was admitted to the hospital after being seriously mauled by a circus lion that had escaped near Ropery Road. Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 6 November 1975, page 1 He was found almost naked, his shirt having been ripped from his back. Four lions from Robert Brothers Circus had escaped. The boy was at a nearby bonfire. The lions were tracked down and shot with tranquilliser darts.Times Friday November 7 1975, page 3 The day before, a worker at a safari park, 22 year old Sidney Bamford, had been killed by a tiger called Yellow Tag.Times Thursday November 6 1975, page 3 The matter was raised in parliament on 10 November 1975 by Marcus Kimball the local Member of Parliament.Lion incident 1975 Stephen was seriously ill for many days in the intensive care unit, and died on 20 November 1975.Lincolnshire Echo Friday 21 November 1975, page 1
On 14 July 1977, 50 children were admitted to the hospital when a crop sprayer aircraft had mistakenly flown over Branston County Junior School playground, spraying Systox and Aphox.Times Friday July 15 1977, page 4
On 21 August 1987, Lynn Eyre, of Tobruk Close, gave birth to quadruplets, three boys and a girl.Times Monday August 24 1987, page 3Nottingham Evening Post Monday 24 August 1987, page 10Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 25 August 1987, page 1
In January 2008, there was an outbreak of norovirus, known as the 'vomiting bug'; an outbreak also occurred at the Pilgrim Hospital.Times Saturday January 12 2008, page 27
In 2013, a review by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh found that there was a significant backlog of complaints and that there had been a noticeable increase in incidents when the ombudsman had to intervene to investigate complaints that had not been followed up. Accordingly Keogh found that the complaints handling system was not fit for purpose. The trust implemented a new complaints system in response.
Notable staff
Cassandra Maria Beachcroft (1839–1937), Matron, 1884 to 1898.Rogers, Sarah (2022). 'A Maker of Matrons’? A study of Eva Lückes’s influence on a generation of nurse leaders: 1880–1919' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, April 2022) Beachcroft trained as a Lady Probationer at The London Hospital under Annie Swift and Eva Luckes between about 1879 and 1881. She worked as a ward sister at both The London and St Bartholomew's Hospital before her appointment. She resigned as matron of Lincoln County Hospital after 14 years tenure because of a disagreement with the house surgeon over her professional autonomy. She was an early member of the British Nurses' Association and also a vice Chairman of the Matron's Council. Janet A. Sheppard, Matron 1911 to 1934. She was one of twenty nurses sent from The London Hospital to nurse typhoid patients during the 1905 Lincoln typhoid epidemic.
Services The University of Nottingham Medical School has approximately 330 nursing students and 30 midwifery students at its Lincoln Education Centre. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire share the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance.
References
External links NHS Choices Hospital site map