page_title: Southport General Infirmary
section_title: Post war
hierarchical_section_title: Southport General Infirmary / History / Post war
caption_attribution_description: English: The main site of Southport General Infirmary undergoing demolition.
context_page_description: Southport General Infirmary was a Victorian hospital that was Southport's first major hospital. The first construction of the building started in October 1892, with the first patients being seen at the hospital in September 1895.
context_section_description: On 5 July 1948, the National Health Service took over the ownership and management of the Infirmary. It was one of 14 hospitals under Liverpool Regional Hospital Board. During the 1950s and 1960s the hospital dramatically continued to improve and expand its facilities. This included the provision of emergency lighting, a staff canteen and improvements to staff accommodation. Also a new Pharmacy, which allowed the overrun Outpatient and Casualty Department to be separated into two distinct departments. In 1963 saw the improvements and extensions to the theatre facilities and a new mortuary refrigeration unit was built. While in 1966 an automatic film processing unit was added to the X-ray Department.
  The first half of the 1960s saw a thirty per cent increase in surgical work at the Infirmary and an increase of 20 per cent in all services at the hospital. In 1966 the total of beds the hospital offered was 104 and rising to 205 beds by 1978. The facilities at the Infirmary were stretched as the ever-increasing population continued to grow in the local area. It was identified by the health board that a new hospital was needed to provide sufficient facilities for the increasing demands. Plans were put in place for the building of the Southport and Formby District General Hospital on the former Kew Gardens site on Town Lane.
  The vast majority of services moved to Southport and Formby District General Hospital in 1988. Some of the less acute services, such as the eye unit, the ear, nose & throat unit, audiology, chiropody, speech therapy, services for the elderly and some pathology services, remained at the Infirmary with the main entrance relocated to Pilkington Road. Also the spinal injuries unit moved from the Southport Promenade Hospital to the Southport General Infirmary at that time.
  The Christiana Hartley maternity unit and the other remaining services provided on the infirmary site moved to new accommodation at the Southport and Formby District General Hospital in 1999. The infirmary was demolished in 2008 and the site was subsequently redeveloped for residential use as Hartley Grange.
caption: The main infirmary site during demolition in 2008
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