Royal Naval Hospital, Portland

File:Portland Community Hospital, Entrance, Dorset.JPG

The entrance of the Portland Community Hospital, with the hospital itself in the background.

The Portland Royal Naval Hospital was a naval hospital on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The hospital site was located close to Portland Harbour within the neighbouring village of Castletown. Discounting various other earlier buildings used as a temporary hospital, the main general naval hospital was active from the beginning of the 20th century, and comprised an administration block, surgical block, medical block, officers block and service buildings. It closed in 1957, when it was handed over to the National Health Service, and the NHS Portland Community Hospital is still active today.

History

File:Portland Community Hospital, Dorset from Merchant's Incline.JPG

The hospital seen from the Merchant's Railway incline.

The hospital has origins dating back to the 19th-century, following the establishment of the Royal Naval base at Portland Harbour. Before the main site was constructed, an early incarnation of the hospital was made up of what later became the Portland Royal Navy's Sick Quarters, situated further down Castle Road. The original entrance was further along Castle Road than the present once. As a detached branch of the main hospital site, a Zymotic Hospital were also created for as a Royal Naval Infectious Diseases branch, situated on the eastern side of the Merchant's Railway Incline.

Around the turn of the century, an additional site along Castle Road had been set-up as part of the hospital, and this is where the current hospital is sited today. The higher Castle Road site was selected for the Royal Naval General Hospital. It was completed by 1906. In its original function the site was made up of an officers' block, administration block, surgical block and the medical block. An un-timetabled station called Portland Hospital Halt was provided to serve the Portland Naval Hospital around 1925.

File:Portland Community Hospital, Entrance, Dorset 2.JPG

The earthworks and one of three entrances of the Underground Operating Theatre, seen from the hospital entrance.

With the outbreak of World War II, an underground operating theatre was constructed. During the war, the underground theatre and surgical block were the only two parts of the hospital to be in full-time operation. The hospital saw damage from air raids, which led to the decision during 1940 that as many patients as possible should be moved to a less vulnerable site. Minterne House, located at Minterne Magna in Dorchester was requisitioned for this purpose. After this, Portland's hospital strictly became a casualty and emergency hospital. Despite this the hospital would receive 5,222 inpatients over the course of the war.

After the war, the hospital was surplus to requirements, and in 1957 the navy handed the hospital over to the National Health Service. The underground operating theatre was rewired during 1954-5, and when the NHS took over the site it was still equipped and functional, but was later shut down. In 1996 the Portland Rotary had been successful in gaining access to the underground operating theatre. However after the weekend, steel gates were put on the tunnel entrances and the theatre closed to the public since.

By 2005, some outer-buildings had been demolished to make way for Foylebank Way, including Foylebank Court - a residential area consisting of 48 one and two bedroom flats and bungalows for the elderly above 55 years of age.

See also

• Healthcare in Dorset
• List of hospitals in England