Cranleigh Village Hospital
There are many services at Cranleigh Village Hospital – except beds. They were withdrawn by the NHS about 20 years ago and all efforts to restore them have not been agreed by the NHS. There is no longer a project to build Cranleigh a new hospital. Sad but True. The over arching reason is said to be that the NHS don’t fund running costs for small (under 30) in-bed hospitals anywhere around the country and their policies are to care for people in their own homes or in care homes. As we all know most care homes have some nursing beds that are for poorly people after they leave hospital and can’t yet be cared for at home. Care home fees are part paid for by the NHS on an individual basis. For a clear example you can google Knowle Park Nursing Home and see their fee structure here.
So moving on.….
Cranleigh Village hospital provides many up to date services and continues to be developed and modernised. If you go to the League of Friends website, you will be delighted by the list of services now found there in our village. There is a copy below showing some services or click here
Our beloved NHS have placed our much loved cottage hospital under the care and use of the Royal Surrey County Hospital some time ago. So if you want to find out about Cranleigh’s hospital go to – Royal Surrey Website click here – it states that Cranleigh Village Hospital provides outpatient services to people closer to home. Services situated in Cranleigh include radiology, podiatry, physiotherapy and numerous outpatient clinics. 014837824006 High Street, Cranleigh , Surrey, GU6 8AE. It has not been updated for a long time and does not give a rounded picture of what you can expect. You may be very interested to note that it is the Royal Surrey that now commissions any work to be done on the whole property, inside and outside. They may be short of funds, judging by the dilapidation of the entire set of buildings. Many small repairs get carried out, using South House as a work shop. The original cottage is only used for storage.
The rest of this article is taken from the League of Friends website
1. The Consultant Outpatient services – We now have many Guildford Consultants coming down to the Village Hospital to provide outpatient clinics for referral and follow ups. This service is increasingly expanding and we now have clinics related to Cardiology, Diabetes, Respiratory medicine, Surgery, Orthopaedics, ENT, Obstetrics, Ophthalmology, Neurology, Rheumatology and Pain management.
2. Musculoskeletal splint service – the LOF has recently funded a new stock of splints, braces and boots allowing the orthopaedic department now to offer fracture clinic referrals and follow ups and also allowing the Ultrasound departments to increase the variety of injections they can provide.
3. Radiology services – the major recent investment in the Village Hospital by the LOF was the setting up of the new Radiology department with ‘state of the art’ latest technology X-ray machine (more modern that those at RSCH !) with digital images and rapid radiologist reporting. This service has not been available at Cranleigh Village Hospital and we are delighted to have this service back locally for residents of surrounding villages at a cost of £400,000 funded by the LOF.
4. Ultrasound services – we now have several weekly sessions of ultrasound imaging mainly for musculoskeletal conditions together with Ultrasound guided injections by visiting Consultant Radiologists.
5. Maternity unit – the LOF has assisted in funding a new Maternity unit at the Village Hospital which has now opened. This is to provide local midwifery services to antenatal and postnatal mothers and is a great boost to maternity and newborn services to local residents. (from May 5th 2020)
6. Physiotherapy services – the LOF is supporting the local Physiotherapy department to try to expand their services and improve efficiency.
There are several other projects in the pipeline but as you can imagine within the NHS these take time to develop and fund. However the League of Friends is strategically involved in many of these developments and is keen to see the Village Hospital thrive, develop, expand and improve services locally for local people.
The function of the League of Friends (‘LOF’)is primarily to act as a Charity to support the Cranleigh Village Hospital by continually updating equipment and by providing those comforts which make a hospital visit more agreeable to patients. Since the hospital lost its inpatient beds there has been a drive to maximise the use and services available to local residents at the Village Hospital so that local people can have outpatient medical services on their doorstep and avoid the need to go to the Royal Surrey County Hospital at Guildford.
Over the last few years these services have really expanded. :
I went for an outpatients appointment recently to Cranleigh Hospital, instead of going to the Royal Surrey as usual.
It was so well organised. A brilliant facility for Cranleigh.
Together with the Cranleigh Health Centre, we are so lucky to have such amazing facilities.
The League of Friends needs our very grateful thanks.
Will it be possible for the fund raising and contributions we all put into the new hospital project now be transferred to the League of Friends who are doing so well.
It is a shame after all the effort put into the New Hospital Project by Dr Robin Fawkner-Corbett and his team but we should be grateful for all we have here in Cranleigh taking care or our wellbeing.