RAF Wegberg Hospital
Coordinates: 51 ° 9 ′ 26.6 ″ N , 6 ° 18 ′ 19.1 ″ E
The Royal Air Force Hospital Wegberg (also RAF (H) Wegberg ) was a military hospital of the Royal Air Force opened in 1953 in Wegberg near Mönchengladbach .
history
Construction began in February 1953 with the construction of Royal Air Force aerodrome wing No. 5357 and was completed on May 31, 1953. The hospital opened on November 1, 1953. At the official opening ceremony on November 16, Lady Foster, wife of the Commander in Chief of the 2nd Tactical Air Force , unveiled a plaque in the entrance hall.
The hospital was built in a unique way: there was an outer wide U-shaped ring made of one-story buildings and an inner U-shaped ring made of two-story buildings. You could be described as one horseshoe in another. The outer ring consisted mainly of wards, outpatient and clinical areas, while the inner one mainly comprised the administrative and support services and a central kitchen area. They were connected by radial and spoke corridors that could be converted into stations if necessary. The psychiatric department, the boiler house, the shops, the dining rooms, the staff quarters and the marriage quarters were separated from the main building of the hospital.
The hospital served as a general hospital for British military personnel, associated British civilian support personnel and their families in much of North Rhine-Westphalia , the Netherlands and Belgium . In one year, the hospital's maternity ward could deliver up to 1,000 babies, while other wards treated up to 6,000 inpatients and 32,000 outpatients. Intensive care units and a special ward for babies were added. During the Gulf War in 1990 , hospital employees served in the Middle East, so civilian personnel had to be hired.
Hospital operations were temporarily impaired in June 1980 by extensive damage after the explosion of a propane cylinder in the dental laboratory. In January 1987 the hospital had to close except for emergency rooms because severe winter temperatures had caused the water pipes to burst. In September 1987, the roof of the maternity ward was badly damaged by an accidental fire caused by workers.
The nursing school closed in 1984 after a large number of staff had been trained there. Student nurses from RAF hospitals in the UK were posted to Wegberg, particularly for obstetrics training .
In 1992 and 1993 the British government reduced the number of beds from 171 to 90 beds by closing the children's and infant wards and the maternity ward and merging the medical and surgical wards.
Time after the closure
The hospital was closed as a general hospital after 43 years and officially handed over to the United Kingdom Support Command (UKSC) in JHQ Rheindahlen on April 1, 1996 . A small inpatient psychiatric unit and some community facilities remained on the premises from 1996 to September 2010, and it also became the headquarters of the British Armed Forces Health Service (HQ BFGHS) from 1999 to September 2010 . The entire hospital site was then officially returned to the German authorities.
In November 2015, the hospital looked abandoned and derelict. It was badly damaged by vandalism, fire and theft. On April 15, 2017, further damage was caused by a major fire. Fighting the fire was difficult. After two fires in April 2019, a major fire broke out on July 12, 2019. The city then requested the demolition of the buildings, which began in 2019. After the work has been completed, the site is to be renatured.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heathcare & hospitals | The Army Children Archive (TACA). Retrieved January 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Wegberg Hospital Handover October 29, 2010. Accessed January 5, 2020 (German).
- ^ Abandoned RAF Hospital: Royal Air Force Hospital. February 2, 2017, accessed on January 7, 2020 (German).
- ↑ a b Gabriele Peters: Long runner at the city limits Wegberg: Demolition of the old JHQ hospital begins. Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
- ↑ RP ONLINE: Photos: Major fire at the former JHQ in Mönchengladbach. Retrieved January 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Gabriele Peters: Long runner at the city limits Wegberg: Demolition of the old JHQ hospital begins. Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
- ↑ Gabriele Peters: The fire brigade was on a large scale: the major fire in the JHQ in Mönchengladbach has been extinguished. Retrieved January 5, 2020 .