July 5, 1948
The NHS comes into existence.
For the first time, hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists are brought together under one umbrella organisation to provide services that are free for all at the point of delivery.
Join us in a journey through the NHS's history in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Think we've missed something? We'd love to see your local NHS stories and pictures. If you'd like to share yours, please send them to us at hiowicb-hsi.communications@nhs.net.
Following the creation of the NHS in 1948, all but 100 of the 640 beds at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, were transferred to the NHS in 1951, with the remainder reserved for ex-servicemen. - Management of St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth was passed to the NHS where it was managed by the Isle of Wight Group Hospital Management Committee.
- When the NHS was created, the Southampton Union Infirmary changed its name to Southampton General Hospital.
- The first mass vaccination programme began in 1958. Everyone under the age of 15 was vaccinated against polio and diphtheria and NHS mobile immunisation vans were used in Portsmouth.
In the 1960s, it was announced that Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth would become a district general hospital to serve the wider area, with an accident and emergency department. - The main building of the former Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley was the world's longest building when completed. It was entirely demolished in 1966, except for the chapel and former YMCA building. Shortly before its demolition, the late Jonathan Miller filmed his 1966 version of Alice in Wonderland in the building.
- The Wessex Neurological Unit at Southampton General Hospital opened in 1965.
- Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital opened as a maternity unit in 1969.
- In the late 1960s, Dr Ronald A. Sandison, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who pioneered the clinical use of lysergic acid diethylamide (the psychedelic also known as LSD) in psychiatry, worked at Knowle Hospital.
- In 1961 the contraceptive pill became available for married women. This changed to all women in 1967.
- In 1972 computerised tomography (CT) scanners were used for the first time to take detailed images of the inside of the body.
- The main Basingstoke and North Hampshire hospital building opened in 1974.
- The East Wing at Southampton General Hospital was constructed in 1974 providing an additional 450 beds, a new accident and emergency department and a children’s unit.
- In 1976 an obstetric unit opened at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight and in 1977 the ambulance station followed.
- In 1979, patients were transferred to the Queen Alexander Hospital in Portsmouth from the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, which was then closed.
- In 1979, a psychiatry block was completed at the Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton to treat patients from Knowle Hospital.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton General Hospital on 12 May 1980.- The Princess Anne Hospital, the maternity hospital in Southampton, was opened by Princess Anne on 28 March 1981.
- In 1983, the £10 million west wing was constructed at Southampton General Hospital, adding 472 beds to the hospital. This was followed a year later by installation of the Wessex body scanner at a cost of £1.5 million.
- In 1986 the Nightingale Wing at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester was built.
- The Coronary Care Unit opened in 1986 at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight .
- St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight was designated as the Island’s district general hospital.
In 1992, the Brinton Wing at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester was built.- An elephant-shaped fountain by sculptor Sioban Coppinger, made to form part of a children’s play area, was erected in Hunters Courtyard in the grounds of the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital in 1992.
- New facilities continued to be added to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, including a breast screening unit in 1993 and an asthma and allergy research unit in 1996.
- The old cottage hospital, which had opened in 1871 in Swan Street, Petersfield, was demolished and replaced by Petersfield Community Hospital, which opened in 1993.
- Knowle Hospital closed in 1996.
- In 1999, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital became the first hospital in Europe to perform surgery using equipment operated by voice commands.
The Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital was used as a set for both series of the Channel 4 comedy series Green Wing, which broadcast between September 2004 and May 2006.- A further development of the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth was completed.
- In July 2006, a new cardiac centre was opened at Southampton General Hospital together with accommodation for relatives of cardiac patients.
- In September 2006 the Steve Mills Stem Cell Laboratory, which had been established by a charity created by Southampton Football Club player, Steve Mills, moved from the Royal South Hants Hospital to a new location at Southampton General Hospital. It was officially opened on 27 September 2006 by Steve's widow, Jo, and former Southampton footballer and manager, Alan Ball.
- At the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, the new treatment and diagnostic centre (the Burrell wing) was built in 2006 and the education centre and library was also rebuilt in the same year.
- In 2007, management of Royal South Hants Hospital was passed to Southampton City Primary Care Trust.
- In 2007, all old local hospitals in South East Hamphire were closed and their services moved to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth – where a new cancer laboratory was also opened.
In 2010 and 2011 Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute was broadcast featuring the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton.- In 2010, a new outpatient department was opened at the Andover War Memorial Hospital.
- In 2010 the psychiatry block at Royal South Hants Hospital was closed and a new adult mental health unit called Antelope House was opened in Southampton, housing 50 acute beds and 12 psychiatric intensive care beds in a new £20 million building.
- Haslar Hospital in Gosport was decommissioned in 2010. It had treated its first patient in 1753, originally opening as a naval facility, but later serving all branches of the armed forces. It later treated civilians too.
- Fareham Community Hospital opened in Sarisbury Green in 2010, next to the site of the former Coldeast Hospital, a mental health facility.
- At about 4pm on 9 December 2011, a fire broke out in the MRI scanner room at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, destroying the MRI scanner and one of two CT Scanners, all of which were used to take detailed pictures of the inside of the body, as well as the control room for all the scanners.
- Oak Park Community Hospital opened at Havant in 2012.
- Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was formed in 2012, when the Basingstoke and North Hants Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust merged with the Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust.
- The opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games included a performance that paid tribute to the Great Ormond Street Hospital and the NHS.
- The Victoria Cottage Hospital in Havant, which by 1997 dealt with 400 in-patients, 1,800 out-patients and 500 minor accidents, closed its doors for the final time in 2013.
- In autumn 2016 Southampton General Hospital was upgraded to become an adult and paediatric Major Trauma Centre (MTC) under the NHS plans for regional trauma network.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges, the impact of which is still being experienced today.- The laboratory teams at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were the first in the UK to test for COVID-19 outside of a Public Health England laboratory.
- During 2021, two former Minor Injuries Units – at Gosport and Petersfield – were upgraded to Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs), offering extended services to people needing urgent health care.
- The brand new, state-of-the-art replacement Hythe and Dibden War Memorial Hospital opened in 2022, on the site of the former community hospital of the same name. Its services include physiotherapy, musculoskeletal, pain, a respiratory clinic, older persons' mental health, podiatry, bladder, bowel and stoma care, paediatric health, a heart failure clinic, maternity services, gynaecology, urology and special care dentistry.
- The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board became a statutory organisation on 1 July 2022, alongside Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System, which is a partnership of NHS and local government organisations working together to join up health and care services to improve the health and wellbeing of people in our communities.
- In April 2023 the Isle of Wight's new £1m ambulance station was opened by the Duchess of Gloucester.
- To date more than 5 million COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. This is the result of an incredible effort from staff, partners and volunteers across the system and we send them a huge thank-you.
July 5, 2023
The NHS celebrates its 75th birthday – read about some of the amazing NHS staff, past and present, and see how you can get involved on our NHS 75 web page.
