The place

Cambridge has a long and distinguished history in the world of medicine. Physicians and scientists have contributed to medical knowledge over the years from the discovery of the circulation of blood by William Harvey in 1628 to the unravelling of the intricacies of DNA by Nobel laureates Francis Crick and Jim Watson in 1953.

 

Today Cambridge with its wealth of research organisations and strong partnership between the Trust, the University and the Medical Research Council is a world leader in biomedical research and its translation into better treatments for better patient care.

 

Opening in 1766 in Trumpington Street, Cambridge with just 20 beds and 11 patients, Addenbrooke's hospital was one of the first provincial voluntary hospitals in the country.

 

As medical science developed during the 18th and 19th centuries the hospital grew rapidly. By the 1950s, with the impact of the National Health Service, the hospital was struggling to accommodate the demand on services. Consequently in the early 1960s the hospital began a staged move to its present 70 acre campus in Hills Road on the southern outskirts of Cambridge.

 

The first stage of the hospital development on the Hills Road campus was opened by the Queen in 1962, and from that day onwards the hospital has continued to grow.

 

In 2004 the prospect of NHS Foundation Trust status signalled the most radical and exciting opportunity for hospitals since the NHS was set up in 1948: a chance to be at the forefront of major organisational change to deliver a responsive, accessible, inclusive health service accountable to the local community and free from central government control.

 

A new name welcomed this new era. As part of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the reputation, spirit and excellence of the two hospitals, Addenbrooke's and the Rosie, are laying the foundation for the next stages of the Trust's development.

 

The economic success of the Cambridge sub-region has made it one of the most attractive places to live and work in the UK. It offers a vibrant commercial network, world-famous research and academic institutions, and a high quality of life which continues to draw enterprises from across the country and around the world.

 

Economic growth cannot take place without significant new housing and infrastructure development, and fortunately the Cambridge sub-region is one of the government's national growth areas. Around 47,000 new homes will be built in the area in the period up to 2016 and around 70,000 new jobs will also be created in the period up to 2021. This rate of growth is around four times the national average and will have a significant impact on the requirement for health and hospital services.

 

 

 

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Cambridge University Hospitals today

 

CUH has 1,170 beds and sees around 500,000 patient attendances a year.

 

21st century hospitals don't just treat patients; modern medicine is about striving for innovation and quality in patient care; and it's about the future not just the present - the development of teaching and research.

 

The Trust's strength lies in the combination of its different roles:

• as a local hospital for our community
• a specialist hospital on a regional and national basis
• a teaching hospital for the University of Cambridge, and
• a major research centre - one of the five comprehensive biomedical research centres in the country.

For the last seven years, the healthcare consultancy CHKS has named the Trust as one of the 40 top hospitals in the UK - and in 2008 CUH was singled out for a special award for the quality of its patient care.

 

 

Serving our local community and developing our expertise

 

Addenbrooke's Hospital

 

Addenbrooke's is a centre of medical excellence. As an internationally known university teaching hospital, it is a natural centre for specialist services dealing with rare or complex conditions needing the most modern facilities, up-to-date treatment and the best doctors. Many of the hospital's specialists are leaders in their fields. This means that care is of the highest standard and that local patients benefit from having this concentration of medical expertise on their doorstep.

 

 

Through Addenbrooke's, the Trust provides emergency, surgical and medical services for people living in the Cambridge area as well as being a centre of excellence for regional specialist services for organ transplantation, cancer, neurosciences, paediatrics and genetics.

 

Thirteen directorates are responsible for the delivery of clinical care through 51 specialties with the support of clinical diagnostic departments and therapy services. All this is supported by a corporate infrastructure of IT, finance, human resources, estates and facilities, corporate development and management, patient services and administration.

 

In 2007 the Trust scored 'excellent' for the quality of our services and 'excellent' for the use of resources in the Care Quality Commission's annual Health Check - one of only two hospitals in the East of England to do so well. The rating identifies the hospital as one of the best in the country.

 

'Thirteen Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists associated with the hospital campus.'

 

> Addenbrooke's Hospital

 

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The Rosie Hospital

 

The Rosie Hospital, adjacent to Addenbrooke's, is the 120-bed maternity and women's hospital with its own theatre suite, fetal assessment unit, ultrasound department and neonatal intensive care unit. It is the regional centre of excellence for maternity care with around 5,000 babies born there each year.

 

Gynaecology services are provided to the local and regional populations of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon, North Essex and East and North Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Bedfordshire. In recent years, the Rosie's role as a specialist centre for women with complex gynaecological problems has increased significantly, particularly in the area of gynaecological cancer and reproductive medicine. Patient care benefits from the clinical research and teaching undertaken by the University Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology embedded within the Rosie Hospital as part of the School of Clinical Medicine.

 

In January 2008 the first Healthcare Commission (now the Care Quality Commission) review of the country's maternity services rated the Rosie Hospital as 'best performing', with the highest ranking in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

 

> The Rosie Hospital

 

Investing in the future ... teaching

 

The University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, situated on the Addenbrooke's campus is recognised throughout the world as a centre of excellence for medical education and research.

 

Having awarded medical degrees since 1363, undergraduate clinical medical education was formally introduced to Cambridge in 1975 with the establishment of purpose-built accommodation adjacent to Addenbrooke's. Over the years first-class resources have been developed including computer-assisted learning suites, excellent library services and the Addenbrooke's Clinical Skills Unit. The Postgraduate Medical Education Centre is situated within the Clinical School building, sharing resources and facilitating medical student access to the Simulator Centre.

 

Cambridge offers three undergraduate medical education programmes - the standard six year course, the MBPhD programme in which clinical students intercalate a PhD after Year 4 and the accelerated four-year graduate entry programme. About half of the clinical teaching occurs at Addenbrooke's with the consultants, junior staff, nurses and allied health professionals regularly involved in medical student teaching and assessment.

 

The integration of academic research with full professional clinical training has been the hallmark of the Clinical School since its foundation. The School has established the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in an adjacent building where the core scientific disciplines of structural biology applied to medicine, cell biology, medical imaging, stem cell medicine and bioinformatics are developed.

 

These disciplines underpin the wide range of research programmes into disease-specific areas: cancer, cardiovascular medicine, diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, genetics and genetic medicine, infection and immunity and neurosciences. This research is conducted in association with and within the relevant departments in Cambridge University Hospitals.

 

'Clinical teams work alongside world-class scientists and it is this co-existence of experience and expertise that fosters translational research.'

 

> The University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine

 

Investing in the future ... research

 

CUH is one of the very few places in the UK where a university hospital with excellent research and clinical infrastructure is co located with world-class biomedical science institutes.

 

In the hospital, clinical teams work alongside world-class scientists and it is this co-existence of experience and expertise that fosters translational research - turning basic science into new drugs and new therapies to improve patient care.

 

At any one time, the R&D Department of the Trust is monitoring over 1,000 biomedical research projects taking place on the campus in different stages of development from pilot projects to advanced clinical trials. Over 250 different agencies from 12 countries, ranging from government departments and charities to commercial drug manufacturers, fund that research. The researchers on the campus collaborate extensively with universities and companies throughout the UK and Europe on multi-centre projects. Of the 1,000 projects, more than half have been directly initiated or sponsored by the Trust and its academic partners on the campus.

 

The Trust shares its campus with a number of internationally renowned organisations:

 

> Cancer Research UK

> GlaxoSmithKline

> Medical Research Council (MRC)

> National Blood Service

> University of Cambridge

> The Wellcome Trust

 

Designation as one of the first National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive biomedical research centres in 2006 recognised the range and quality of research being carried out in the Trust and brought with it additional funding to support development.

 

Cambridge scientists have long been pushing at the frontiers of knowledge and have made outstanding contributions to medicine-related science. Thirteen Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists associated with the hospital campus.

 

> Biomedical Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

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