group. The private sector has grown to make good some part of t deficiency. It is perhaps unlikely that growth would have been so rapi had there existed a comprehensive industrial or occupational healt service.

At present, the extent to which the provident movement provides for this is limited and confined to only a narrow section of employment Nevertheless, the provident movement may well be the embryo of comprehensive employment-based or occupational health service. The opportunities for such a service, its place in the whole structured medical care and its significant economic contribution are well recog nised.19 It is along these lines that the future development of the private sector of medical care may lie.

19 Off sick, Office of Health Economics, 1971.

Foreword

The formal opening by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II of Stage I of this Project
brings to fruition a proposal of the Medical Research Council which was
accepted in principle in 1960 by the Lord Privy Seal, Minister of Health and the
Secretary of State for Scotland to bring together on one site a clinical research
centre and a district general hospital. The Regional Hospital Board welcomed
the
opportunity to participate in such an inspired and unique venture in
relation to its own proposed new hospital which it planned to build at
Northwick Park to meet the deficiency of facilities in that area.

The Board and the Council are indebted to those of their members who with a
representative of the Department of Health and Social Security have served on
the Committee
which
has
from the beginning directed the whole project.
Throughout the original concept has been kept in view and the prospect has bean
scientifically designed to encourage the free exchange of ideas between medical
and scientific workers and to function as an integrated whole. Special attention
has also been given to development of close relationships between the hospital.
local authority and general practitioner services for the maximum benefit of the
community which they all serve.

We are indeed grateful to all those who have contributed to the briefing. planning, design and construction of the buildings and in the commissioning of the first phase We have no doubt that this sustained and co-operative effort will be continued during the period remaining until the project comes fully into operation in 1973 and will be developed by the staff of both the hospital and the clinical research centre in the treatment of patients who fall to their care.

The Nature of the Project

The Northwick Park Hospital and
Clinical Research Centre is a joint project of
the North West Metropolitan Regional
Hospital Board and the Medical Research
Council. As a district hospital serving some
180,000 people
mainly from the London
Boroughs of Brent, Harrow and Ealing-
combined with a national centre for clinical
research it is a unique development in the
United Kingdom.

Origins

The proposal for a combined Hospital and Centre arose from a coincidence of plans the Regional Board's wish to provide a much needed new district service in the Harrow and Wembley area, and a decision by the Medical Research Council that progress in the field of clinical research would best be encouraged by the co-ordination of the clinical, para clinical and non-clinical sciences in one large centre Work began on the project late in 1961. A project committee consisting of representatives of the Regional Hospital Board, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health and Social Secunty (formerly the Ministry of Health) has been responsible for the management of the scheme calling on wide range of expert advice. The detailed design proposals were prepared for the committee by a project team of doctors, nurses. administrators and other specialist advisers from the authorities concerned, working in collaboration with the architects.

and quantity surveyors.

Building started in 1966 on the basis of
a contract in the sum of £13.239 890
and will not be completed until 1973/4
the hospital meanwhile coming into
operation in three distinct stages.

The Tasks of the Hospital and Centre
A new Hospital Management Committee
will manage the hospital which will
eventually provide 815 beds. The hospital
a district and a
has two main tasks
national task.

The district task is to provide a new
general hospital service in the district
The in patient and out-patient services to
be provided include general medicine,
surgery, orthopaedic surgery.
gynaecology maternity psychiatry.
communicable diseases and the
treatment of children and the elderly, and
A consultant out patient
rehabilitation
service will also be provided for ENT
hology and dermatology
surgery, ophthalmology
which will be supported by beds for
in patients at existing centres elsewhere.
When the hospital is
is completed, there will
be 630 district beds with associated
accident and out-patient services
The national task of the hospital is to be
carried out in
in partnership with the clinical
research centre, and a further 185 national"
beds will be provided for this work. The
admission of patients to these beds and to
associated clinics will be governed by

the need for more specialized treatment or further diagnostic investigation than would be available in the district hospitai Some of these patients will alreads have been admitted to district beds others will be referred ether direct by local doctors or from other parts of the country

Benefits from the Project There are many advantages to patients and to the community in this combination of research centre and hospital. Together they will be capable of providing care in illnesses which present special problems in diagnosis or in treatment The hospital and its patients with be on the threshold at advances in medical science and have access to the unique facilities of the research centre while the research workers will be in direct touch with the problems of disease as manifested in the community

The Board and the Hospital Management Committee are particularly conscious of the fact that the district task of the hospital can be achieved only as part of the larger task of the total health care of the a task invobing population in the area number of different authorities. To this end the Board and the Management Committee have created a number of links with the community particularly with the local health services general practitioners and voluntary organisation, and are working to strengthen these ties