Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Ysbyty Wrexham Maelor
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Geography
Location	Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	District General Teaching Hospital
Affiliated university	Glyndŵr University, Bangor University
Services
Emergency department	Major 24 hour A&E: Emergency surgery and disease quarantine facilities within A&E. Police station located in A&E,
Beds	981
History
Founded	1826
Links
Website	http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/861/home
Lists	Hospitals in Wales

The Ysbyty Wrexham Maelor Hospital is an NHS hospital for the North East Wales region, with 581.3 beds.^[1] It housed the North East Wales NHS trust before the merger of all the trusts in North Wales in 2010.

As of September 2012 Wrexham Maelor Hospital had a catchment area of over half a million residents.

Today

The hospital is a district general hospital serving Wrexham and the surrounding area and only 10 miles from the Countess of Chester Hospital. Other general hospitals are located in Bangor, Rhyl and in cities such as Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham. The Accident and Emergency department is the busiest in the north of Wales; it regularly deals with over 30,000 emergency cases a year.

Over the last three years the A&E department has been expanded to allow for the increasing demand for care. New developments include a new specialist paediatric emergency department and a new self-contained isolation area for the care of patients with extreme contagious disease. The hospital forms part of the North Wales trauma network, working in conjunction with the major trauma centres at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent for adult patients and Alder Hey in Liverpool for paediatric patients.^[2]

North Wales Police maintain a presence 24 hours a day in a specially built police station located within the A&E department.

The hospital is able to offer both emergency and elective general surgery, general paediatric services and a new specialist cancer unit has opened in the last decade.

University connections

The Maelor Hospital a teaching hospital and provides training for student nurses studying at Glyndwr University Wrexham and Bangor University. The hospital accepts students of the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea and Manchester.

Baby in a box

In 1994 Maelor Hospital was widely criticised for sending a stillborn baby's body to Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales (UHW) in a cardboard box.^[3] The body should have undertaken the 200 mile journey by ambulance or funeral director but was instead given to a private courier firm to save costs.^[4] The body was carried in a plastic bag inside a plastic container, packed in a cardboard box, and was delivered along with medical supplies to UHW's stores. It was only discovered when the bottom of the cardboard box gave way and the plastic box fell out. Rhodri Morgan, then the MP for Cardiff West, said: "This is the most disgraceful incident in the health service in Wales during my seven years as an MP."^[5] John Marek, then the MP for Wrexham, wrote to Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley "urging her to issue instructions to ensure a similar incident did not occur again."^[6]

See also

• Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
• Glan Clwyd Hospital, Rhyl
• Gwynedd Hospital, Bangor
• University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

References

1. https://statswales.wales.gov.uk/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Hospital-Activity/NHS-Beds/NHSBeds-by-Organisation-Site beds
2. "Major Trauma Services" (PDF). Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
3. Holden, Wendy (19 November 1994). "Hospital sent body by post in cardboard box". The Daily Telegraph (London). p. 3.
4. "Baby's body transported in box". The Times (London). 19 November 1994. p. 6.
5. "Hospital sent baby's body by courier". The Independent (London). 19 November 1994.
6. Roy, Amit (20 November 1994). "Hospitals split over body sent in parcel". The Sunday Telegraph (London). p. 7.

Coordinates: 53°02′48″N 3°00′37″W / 53.0467°N 3.0104°W