About Us
Who we are and what we do
The University Hospital of North Staffordshire is a large acute teaching hospital Trust on the border of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Most of our patients live in North Staffordshire, which includes these two local authority areas and the neighbouring Staffordshire Moorlands District. Parts of the area are prosperous, but others are deprived. This is reflected in the health of the local population, which is generally poorer than the national average.
Our main City General and Royal Infirmary sites are around half a mile apart. They house most of our services and as at March 2007 had around 1130 beds. Our Central Outpatients Department and Central Pathology Laboratory lie between these two. On average, during the year we employed the equivalent of 5,996 full time staff.
Our services
We provide a full range of district hospital services for the local population of around 470,000 in North Staffordshire and specialised acute services for a population of some three million in a wider local area including neighbouring counties and Wales.
Our specialised services include cancer, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, renal, neonatal intensive care and paediatric intensive care. We are also recognised for our particular expertise in respiratory conditions, spinal surgery, upper gastro-intestinal surgery, complex orthopaedic surgery, cancer and laparoscopic surgery, and the management of liver conditions.
Many emergency patients are brought to us from a wide area by both helicopter and land ambulance because of our skills in treating trauma cases.
In recent years we have developed as the principal teaching hospital for the expanding medical school at Keele University. The undergraduate medical course is well respected and oversubscribed. We are also an increasingly important centre for clinical research, with a new research centre opening during the year.
Our estate
We have buildings spread over ninety acres on our three main sites, ranging in age from less than ten years to more than 150.
Having buildings spread over such a wide area inevitably leads to some inefficiencies as services are split and patients have to be transported between buildings and sites for various aspects of their care. The older buildings require an enormous amount of maintenance and do not lend themselves to 21st century clinical care.
In the past year we have been able to close some of the older wards and have plans to close and demolish more in the coming year. We are redeveloping our Emergency Department to bring services together on our Royal Infirmary site. We have begun work on the first part of our new hospital, which will bring our facilities right up to date.
How we are organised
Our clinical services are organised into the four divisions of Medicine, Surgery, Support Services, and Treatment Centre and Children’s Services. Each division is led by an Associate Director supported by a professional head of nursing. Each division has a number of directorates, each led by a clinical director and directorate manager.
We have a non-clinical Corporate Services Division providing services such as catering, cleaning, portering and including the Supplies Department, as well as a Central Functions Division which includes Finance and Human Resources.
Prior to April 2003, the hospital was called the North Staffordshire Hospital. University hospital status was awarded with the introduction of the medical school.
