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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to The building of QMC

I remember going there before it was fully completed and opened, around 1977, to deliver some urgent legal documents to someone or other. I worked at Browne Jacobson and Roose at the time. The site seemed like a city within a city. I believe it has expanded even further since then.

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It's expanded...but mainly within itself.  

 

It hasn't gone outside the original boundaries, but new buildings have been constructed in the empty spaces which were left from the beginning, so the whole area is more crowded.

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Queens i was put in there  1957 after being born and contracting pneumonia,  the Doctor says to my Dad , "he's very weak , i don't think he will last out the night"     here i am 65 years later still alive , and annoyi g you lot  !!!!

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Great find, I remember it being built . To start with it was the white buildings fronting onto Abbey Street , nurses accommodation, long since demolished then the main building, How many people have gotten lost walking around that place.

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I recall many moons ago, we took 'er indoors mum to Q.M.C and after she had been warded we were asked to clear off for half hour or so, while they sorted mum out. We were told where to get a cup of tea, so off we went. The floor we went to was not being used at all and it was the eeriest thing I've ever experienced. Remember there was a massive kitchen, with all brand new, pristine equipment. Not a soul in site. We managed to get our tea and then buggered off back to the ward. Just like the Mary Celeste. 

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When did they start building it? I have vague memories of stopping our 53 service at a stop outside when the road was just a boulevard. The terminus was the next stop at the roundabout, (University blvd). Round that and in a lay-by before heading off along the ring road to Mansfield Road.

That deserted floor we were on, there were no beds or partitions, just this big empty floor and kitchens. 

Also, does anybody know when the flyover was built at Dunkrk roundabout?

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My mum had both cataract ops at QMC. On the first occasion, she was on a six bedded ward and I stayed there all day. They let me accompany her up to the theatre ante room where she told me to go away and find some breakfast. I'd eaten nothing that morning because I was more wound up than she was.  After toast and coffee, I made my way back to the ward, after getting hopelessly lost several times.  I then heard a very unpleasant nurse berating an elderly lady in the bed near the door because she had wet herself. The elderly lady was some way down the list for cataract op that day, my mum being the first to go up. I was absolutely incensed, went over and laid into that nurse. I reported her afterwards. She was a disgrace.

 

On the occasion of Mum's second cataract op, the beds had disappeared and were replaced by easy chairs! I got hopelessly lost yet again!

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Thanks for the enlightenment CT. I'm very much obliged to you. I'm glad my memory is not letting me down. I used to love that 53 route, Mansfield Road to Dunkirk Island and return. At least you weren't tearing down to the 'city', trying to keep to time. Of course the 53 was extended to Green Lane, Clifton, then it to be bloody hard work. Still loved it though. Best job ever !

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From the Long Eaton Advertiser 17th Aug 1978.

 

FIRST PATIENT FOR £60 MILLION QUEENS MEDICAL CENTRE.

 

This week that centre-whichtakes in the University Hospital and Medical School-
opened its doors to patients for the first time and the giant building on the edge of the city went into action.

The sort of advanced equipment within the building is absolutely astounding and thenumber of rooms likewise.
Nottingham and district will be proud of it in years to come.
It is known as the Queen's Medical Centre and is situated at the junction of Derby Road and Clifton Boulevard, two miles from the city centre and about 15 minutes!
drive from Long Eaton via the A52.

 

Jubilee tour
The Queen officially opened and named the £60m. centre in July 1977 during her Jubilee tour of Nottinghamshire.
The Press were invited to the hospital on Monday for a tour, the day before the first patient was due to arrive. She was Mrs June Varnham from East Leake who arrived at 9 a.m. to attend the first dermatology out-patient clinic. This department has been transferred from Nottingham General Hospital.
When Mrs. Varnham arrived she was greeted by Dr. R. Allen, consultant dermatologist, and senior members of the nursing and administrative staff who presented her with bouquet and a framed photograph of the hospital.

University Hospital and Medical School is the first totally integrated hospital and medical teaching centre to be built in England and Wales this century

It will provide 1,430 beds and in conjunction with the City Hospital, Nottingham, places for at least 168 medical studens each year by the time it is fully functional in the early 1980's.

Construction began in 1971 with the objective of increasing the number of doctors in the Trent region and the country as a whole and establishing health facilities where they are most needed.

 

Investment

The medical centre represents a huge investment in bringing health care to Nottingham and the Midlands and it is establishing a reputation internationally as a centre for health services and the health professions.

Phase one of the hospital and medical school consists of two of the four multi-storey blocks and most of the central area.
One of these blocks houses the medical science departments of the University of Nottingham Medical School which is linked to the main university campus on the other side of the ring road by a pedestrian footbridge.

The first medical students entered the university in 1970 and medical student teaching has taken place in the medical centre since 1975.

Central area already houses the School of Nursing which has an intake of more than 1,000 student and pupil nurses. Operating theatres.
catering facilities and support services will also be housed in the central area.

The accident and emergency service for Nottingham, currently offered at Nottingham General Hospital, Nottingham Eye Hospital and Nottingham Children's Hospital. will be centralised at University Hospital.
In-patient services will comprise paediatric services, general surgery, fracture beds, general medicine, intensive care, coronary care, and
children's high dependency area.
 
Advantage
Out-patient facilities will be avaliable for general medicine and surgery, fracture work, paediatrics, ear, nose and throat work, ophthalmology, dental surgery and dermatology.
The campus is so big that patients may get lost inside as several reporters did trying to find the way out.
 
Why is it so big?
The idea was that to have everything under one roof would be a major advantage. Library services, for example, are shared between University Hospital, the Medical School and the Schools of Nursing and Radiography. There will be more specialities such as obstetrics and psychiatry-than there are in any other Nottingham hospital.
 
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1 hour ago, philmayfield said:

I reckon if you put on a white coat and carried a clipboard you could move into the QMC and live, eat and sleep there for free!

Funny you should say that Phil. At the time we took Tina's mum to Queens, I was working at 'Springhead' xray centre. I had to dash out to fetch Tina back from visiting her mum. I didn't have time to remove me white coat, so I was able to walk through the hospital to mum's ward, wearing white coat and sporting a Radiation protection badge and no-one queried who I was. Pity I didn't have a stethoscope hanging round me neck. 

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Those were the days before security key pads and smart cards. You wouldn't get away with it now!  Once got locked in the ladies loo at Nottinghamshire county council's Home Brewery building because my smart card wouldn't work. Got trapped in their decrepit old lift for the same reason!

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2 hours ago, Beekay said:

 I used to love that 53 route, Mansfield Road to Dunkirk Island and return. At least you weren't tearing down to the 'city', trying to keep to time. Of course the 53 was extended to Green Lane, Clifton, then it to be bloody hard work. Still loved it though. Best job ever !

 

I remember travelling on the 53 when I was a kid (and maybe you were driving  !)   It seemed a bit of an exotic journey because the normal bus route just went into the city centre (Broad Marsh) whereas the 53 went round the ring-road to strange 'foreign' places.

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My Uncle Ray worked as procurement officer during the planning and building stages right through to his retirement in the 80's. It must have been a huge responsibility with many situations not encountered before.

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I think Dunkirk flyover was just sideline from the QMC thread. Just me waffling on about buses passing that area. For my sins, I can remember the boulevard crossing the A52 (Derby road) when it was just a very pretty island with lovely flower beds. No sign of an underpass in those days.

Perhaps, with all due respect, Alpha just got his decades wrong. 

Didn't there used to be a P.D.S.A down near Dunkirk somewhere?, before the extension to Clifton Bridge.

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I'm in awe CT. You're a gold mine of information !

Allow me to admire you from a distance.    :jumping:

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