The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is located on Woolwich Common in London, England, was opened in March 2001 and serves patients from the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. The hospital was built to accommodate the services previously provided at Greenwich District Hospital, and is a Private Finance Initiative hospital. In April 2009, the hospital was part of a merger with Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust and Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust to form South London Healthcare NHS Trust.
The hospital's name originates from the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, which occupied the site from 1977 until its closure in 1995, and was named after Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The military hospital was built on the site of the former Shrapnel Barracks and was a replacement for the Royal Herbert Hospital in Shooters Hill and Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital (Millbank).
Recent changes
In July 2012, Andrew Langley, Secretary of State for Health, announced that the South London Healthcare Trust, formed in 2009 was to go into special measures and become the first Trust to have an independent administrator appointed. The Trust was subsequently disbanded by new Administrator Matthew Kershaw.
The Trust was reported as losing £1 million each week as a result of the Private Finance Initiative contract entered into for the building of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The new Administrator is expected to report back to the newly appointed Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt (appt in September 2012)in October.
The two storey Royal Herbert Hospital was built in 1865 on the authority of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea. He was responsible for sending Florence Nightingale to the Crimea and led the War Office reforms after this campaign. Sidney was very passionate about health care and reducing military mortality rates from diseases and ill treated war wounds. There is a statue of him at Waterloo Place in central London. The building work of the hospital cost £209,139 and the land purchase was £6,394. In 1990, the empty and disued site was purchased by a property developer and developed into 228 luxurious flats and apartments called the Royal Herbert Pavilions.
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