Swindon's GWH at 20 as NHS pressures bite

Swindon's Great Western Hospital (GWH) opened its doors 20 years ago, welcoming a new era for local healthcare. But concerns raised at the time about its size and mortgage continue to have an impact, as the NHS faces intense pressure. Staff have been celebrating and sharing some of their memories with the BBC.

When the GWH opened in 2002, the ageing Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), was in desperate need of replacing.

"Not infrequently it would get flooded, occasionally with sewage," recalls Dr Tony Pickworth, a consultant in anaesthesia who worked in the PMH Intensive Care Unit before transferring to GWH.

He remembers the week of the move, bringing in his toolkit from home to help build the ward furniture, with teams doing "little dummy runs with teddy bears" on beds to practice their new procedures.

Consultant Tony Pickworth remembers staff practicing procedures using teddy bears before patients arrived at GWH

But soon after the move a problem quickly became apparent- the hospital was acknowledged as being too small - spaces designed to be offices were converted to wards almost straight away.

"You had to build a hospital based around the funding you were getting, not the care needs," says Dr Pickworth, who describes it as a "sort of head-banging way of working for the NHS, and we're still full today".

LISTEN: BBC Radio Wiltshire looks back on the day GWH opened

Nonetheless the move made a big difference to staff.

"It almost felt like you were moving house," says patient safety matron Nunu Moyo, the nurse who transferred the very first patient from PMH to GWH.

"But it was a day filled with a lot of excitement really."

Matron Nunu Moyo transferred the first patient from PMH to GWH in 2002

GWH was the first hospital in the West of England to be built under a controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) under the then-Labour government - effectively reducing the upfront cost of building hospitals by signing them up to vast mortgages.

The total PFI mortgage for the Great Western, including its 2005 extension, is £151m. With the interest and the rent added in, the Great Western is typically now paying around £35m a year under the arrangement which runs until 2029.

Was it worth it?

"That's a really difficult question to answer," says GWH Chief Executive, Kevin McNamara.

"It was something we had to do, to make sure Swindon got a new hospital but I think hindsight is a wonderful thing, I'd much prefer a new hospital without the financial baggage the PFI gives us."

A free-to-access NHS is "such an important part of what we stand for as a country" says GWH Chief Executive Kevin McNamara

Mr McNamara also acknowledges the hospital was built too small for Swindon and Wiltshire's growth - but the issue is made worse by a lack of investment in other services.

"I think the expectations back at the turn of the century was there would be a growth and investment in out-of-hospital services," he said.

"If that had happened, I think you'd see far fewer people in hospitals like this."

He cites the example of social care - typically lately 100 of the hospital's 500 beds are occupied by patients who are fit to be discharged but are stuck due to the lack of outside care to support them.

"The NHS that's free at the point of delivery is such an important part of what we stand for as a country," Mr McNamara reflects.

He says his job is to "make sure it grows and develops as sustainably as we can" for the next 20 years.