St. Anthony's Hospital, North Cheam

"St. Anthony's Hospital, London" redirects here. For the mediaeval City of London hospital, see St. Anthony's Hospital, St Benet Fink.

St. Anthony's Hospital is a private hospital in North Cheam, formerly in the county of Surrey, now in the London Borough of Sutton, owned and operated by the Daughters of the Cross of Liege, a Roman Catholic religious order. It is located on the junction between the A24 and Gander Green Lane.[1]

Facility

St. Anthony's is a 92-bed private hospital. It provides routine and complex surgery and has an 8-bed intensive care unit.[2][3] The associated St. Raphael's Hospice is a hospice that is operated as a charity; it employs 53 nurses.[2]

History

St. Anthony's was founded in 1904.[4] Its location, once the site of North Cheam House, was purchased by the Daughters of the Cross for £4,625. By 1914 the Daughters of the Cross had replaced North Cheam House, erecting a building of three storeys and 163-foot frontage.[5]

The hospital operated a 'pay-by-your-means' policy until 1948, when the National Health Service was formed, causing St. Anthony's to begin accepting public patients with funding from the NHS. In the early 1970s, St. Anthony's NHS contract was withdrawn and the hospital reverted to private status.[5] Responding to this change in status, in 1975 it developed a speciality for cardiac surgery.[1]

In 1987, the Daughters of the Cross formed St. Raphael's Hospice,[5] a registered charity providing specialist medical and nursing care for those with cancer and other serious illnesses and support for the families of the afflicted[6]

By 2012, a decline in the membership of the Daughters of the Cross, coupled with the advanced age of many of its members, led the order to seek to divest itself of responsibility for the hospital and hospice.[7] After obtaining a management consultancy's advice,[7] they decided to try to sell the hospital but retain ownership of the hospice. They expected to make a decision on a buyer in December 2013.[8] Staff and consultants of the hospital and the chairman of the hospice board raised concerns about how a sale to a private firm might affect the charity work of the hospice, which is subsidised by hospital revenues, and the ability of the hospital to operate within moral directives of the Catholic Church. In June 2013 they appealed to Vatican officials to prevent the sale, and Paul Burstow, the member of parliament for Sutton and Cheam, said he would seek to have the Foreign Office direct an embassy official to bring the issue to the Vatican's attention.[9] In November 2013, Burstow presented a petition to Parliament, signed by over 7,000 people, requesting government help in blocking the sale. Opponents of the sale hoped for formation of a new Catholic charity to take over the hospital and hospice.[8] In March 2014, it was announced that they were to be sold to Spire Healthcare.[10]

Transport

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "St Anthony's Hospital: London Road NORTH CHEAM SM3 9DW". Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Hospital campaigners hope pontiff will block sale". Nursing Standard. 7 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "St. Anthony's Hospital website". Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  4. ↑ "About St. Anthony's". St. Anthony's Hospital. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 "The History of St. Anthony's". St. Anthony's Hospital. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  6. ↑ "St Raphael's Hospice, Sutton, Merton: nursing care for patients with cancer or a serious illnesses". St. Raphael's Hospice. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  7. 1 2 Sleigh, Sophia (2 February 2012). "Nuns step down from running St Anthony's Hospital and St Raphael's Hospice". Your Local Guardian. Newsquest.
  8. 1 2 Sleigh, Sophia (25 November 2013). "Thousands sign petition against separation of St Anthony's Hospital and St Raphael's Hospice in North Cheam". Wimbledon Guardian. Newsquest.
  9. ↑ Sleigh, Sophia (21 June 2013). "Fight for St. Raphael's future escalated to the Vatican". Sutton Guardian. Newsquest.
  10. ↑ "St Anthony's Hospital sold by nuns to private company (From Sutton Guardian)". Suttonguardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Buses from St Anthony’s Hospital (North Cheam)" (PDF). TfL. Retrieved 15 December 2013.

External links

Coordinates: 51°22′46.69″N 0°13′14.49″W / 51.3796361°N 0.2206917°W / 51.3796361; -0.2206917

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