page_title: Public services in Crawley
section_title: Healthcare
hierarchical_section_title: Public services in Crawley / Healthcare
caption_attribution_description: Crawley Hospital, Ifield Road, West Green, Crawley, West Sussex, England.
context_page_description: Crawley, a postwar New Town and borough in the English county of West Sussex, has a wide range of public services funded by national government, West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council and other public-sector bodies. Revenue to fund these services comes principally from Council Tax. Some of Crawley's utilities and infrastructure are provided by outside parties, such as utility companies and West Sussex County Council, rather than by the borough council. To help pay for improved infrastructure and service provision in proposed major residential developments such as Kilnwood Vale and the North East Sector, the borough council has stated that as part of the Crawley Local Plan it would require developers to pay a Community Infrastructure Levy.
  Originally a "quiet, prosperous area" with a population of a few thousand people, Crawley was selected as the site of a New Town under the provisions of the New Towns Act 1946. Crawley Development Corporation was formed in 1947 to establish, administer and control the town's development, including the provision of services.
context_section_description: A cottage hospital with six beds opened in Crawley in 1896.  By 1922 there were 12 beds and an operating theatre.  Patients paid as much as they could afford for treatment; financial support was also given by the public—"something for which the whole community readily united". These premises became too small, and a new "district hospital" was established at Ifield Lodge in West Green—then a mostly residential area west of Crawley High Street—in the 1930s.
  The master plan determined that a larger hospital was needed, and set aside land for it near the Hawth Theatre southeast of the town centre.  Support from the Development Corporation and Crawley Urban District Council was overridden at regional level: the regional health authority decided to rebuild Crawley Hospital, which according to the master plan was to be demolished and replaced by houses. The Development Corporation was frustrated over the "prevarication", in view of Crawley's rapid growth at the time (by the mid-1950s, there were about 20 births per week), and the Ministry of Health ordered a public inquiry in 1958. The decision was upheld, and construction work on a new building on the existing site (51.116556°N 0.197524°W) started the following year.  There were three phases of construction: 1959–61, 1966–70 and 1981.  Crawley Hospital remains in use and is operated by the Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust. The large site reserved for the planned hospital is now in residential use as Arden Road, part of the Furnace Green neighbourhood.
  West Sussex County Council built a central clinic on The Boulevard near the Town Hall in 1959–61, although provision had been made in the master plan for three smaller clinics spread throughout the town.  The town's original ambulance station was on Exchange Road; built in 1963, it was replaced by the early 1980s by a new building on Ifield Road (51.12159°N 0.197275°W) near the fire station. It is operated by the South East Coast Ambulance Service, as are the Ambulance Community Response Posts at Balcombe Road in the Pound Hill area and airside at Gatwick Airport.
  In 2013, Bio City Ltd—a science park development company—put forward proposals for a combined biological sciences park, residential development and hospital.  It would be privately funded but would offer NHS services.  Suggested sites in the Crawley area are at Pease Pottage Hill and at a former industrial site at Manor Royal. Crawley Borough Council, Horsham Borough Council and West Sussex County Council have given their support to the plans.
caption: Crawley Hospital
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