** About Southlands Hospital **
Southlands Hospital focuses on day surgery, orthopaedics, intermediate care and medicine for the elderly. It also hosts older people’s mental health, neurological and stroke rehabilitation services and has an extensive outpatient facility.
The hospital serves people living in Shoreham-by-Sea, Worthing and also towns and villages along the coast and in the inland areas of west Sussex.
History Of Southlands Hospital
** History **
The Steyning Union Workhouse was built on the Southlands site in 1835, with an infirmary added alongside a new workhouse building between 1901 and 1906.
The infirmary cared for wounded soldiers during the First World War, earning the Southlands Guardians the thanks of the army in 1919 for its treatment of military patients.
Southlands also played a part in the Second World War, when the hospital acted as a support unit during the D-Day landings.
Nurse training began in 1922 under the approval of the General Nursing Council, while hammocks in the casualty ward were replaced by folding beds in 1929.
Twenty years later, staff at the hospital assisted in a major incident when a double-decker bus was blown off the Old Shoreham Bridge into the River Adur.
The 1987 hurricane caused damage to buildings and grounds at the hospital and a large hut containing thousands of medical records had a wall blown out - but not a single case note was lost.
Three years later, in 1990, more than 250 patients were evacuated in the early morning after a suspicious briefcase was found. The case was destroyed by bomb disposal experts.
In 2001, the hospital was formally opened – more than 100 years late! The original ceremony, planned in 1901, was cancelled at the last minute following the sudden death of the Chairman. The Chairman in 2001, Stuart Heatherington, performed the belated duty as the hospital marked its centenary with a week of celebrations.
