Countess of Chester Hospital

History

The hospital has its origins in the "Cheshire Lunatic Asylum" which opened on part of the site in 1829. The name of the facility changed to "County Mental Hospital" in 1921, to the "Upton Mental Hospital" on joining the National Health Service in 1948, and then to the "Deva Hospital" in 1950.

By 1948, Chester Royal Infirmary specialized in surgery and out-patients and the City Hospital, Hoole, in chronic illnesses, chest, maternity, paediatric, and general medical cases. Pre-war plans for the expansion of the Infirmary were eventually revived. In 1963 a large out-patient and casualty department was opened at the infirmary; this was accompanied with the completion of the Chester inner ring road in 1967. However, after the creation of the West Cheshire HMC (hospital management committee), a fresh decision was taken to focus all the hospital services for the district at a purpose-built site on Liverpool Road, adjacent to the county mental hospital facilities.

In 1968, the new site was renamed the "West Cheshire Hospital". The maternity unit at the City Hospital was transferred to a new building at the south end of the site in 1971. With the opening of a new general wing and A&E department in 1983, several surgical departments from the Royal Infirmary were relocated to the new buildings. On 30 May 1984, West Cheshire Hospital was officially renamed the Countess of Chester Hospital by Charles and Diana, then the Prince and Princess of Wales and also Earl and Countess of Chester. In 1993, the Royal Infirmary site was closed after its remaining departments were transferred to the Countess. The City Hospital, which had become a 120-bed geriatric unit, was closed in 1994 after its services were taken over by the Countess in 1991.

In January 2006, the CARE building, sometimes known as Outpatients Four, opened and started providing new facilities the Cardiac Catheter Laboratory, Department of Clinical Audiology, Renal & Urology Department and ENT Department.

In 2007, the Countess of Chester became the first hospital in the UK to completely ban smoking for both workers and patients. In April 2014 a new two-storey wing was opened containing a state of the art 21 bed Intensive Care Unit on the first floor, replacing the old HDU and ITU wards. On the ground floor is an expanded endoscopy unit and the bariatric outpatients department.

Lucy Letby case and related investigations and arrests

Main article: Lucy Letby

In August 2023, Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse who had worked at the hospital several years earlier, was found guilty on seven charges of murder and seven charges of attempted murder following a lengthy trial over the collapses and deaths of babies who were being cared for on the hospital's neonatal ward during 2015 and 2016. The jury concluded that Letby carried out the attacks by injecting babies with air or insulin, overfeeding them and physically assaulting them with medical equipment. This explanation of the baby's deaths has been disputed by other medical experts, suggesting that Letby has been wrongly convicted and the deaths and collapses were the result of natural causes, with reportedly inadequate conditions and staffing levels on the neonatal ward also being a factor.

The trust came under scrutiny following Letby's conviction as it was revealed management had protected Letby when consultants at the neonatal unit expressed their suspicions asked them to remove her from frontline duties. She was not removed from frontline duties until the summer of 2016, and remained on clerical duties until her initial arrest in July 2018. Hospital management did not report their suspicions to the police until May 2017, despite claiming that they were already having their suspicions about her conduct some 18 months earlier.

The ward was downgraded following the final suspicious collapses and deaths over the summer of 2016, resulting in higher dependency babies no longer being treated there.

On 4 October 2023, Cheshire Constabulary announced an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital. On 1 July 2025 three people who were "part of the senior leadership team" were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. They have been released on police bail, pending further inquiries.

Services

Part of the old mental health hospital building, now called the 1829 Building, serves as headquarters for West Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and various other NHS support organisations. The Bowmere mental health hospital is on the same site, as is Ancora House, a purpose-built Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services unit.

In April 2019, it announced that it would no longer provide elective treatment for Welsh patients because the Welsh government were not prepared to pay the full costs. The Welsh government have not increased the tariff for NHS procedures in line with NHS England, so the trust is paid about 8% less for patients from Wales. Rising waiting lists mean the trust can increase the work it does for English patients, which is more remunerative.

Performance

Before becoming a foundation trust in 2004, the trust received top 3-star rating in the former national performance charts. In 2016, the CQC rated the hospital as requiring improvement.

The Trust lost the contract for sexual health services when Cheshire West and Chester Council awarded it to East Cheshire NHS Trust in December 2014.

From 2015 to 2016 the trust cancelled urgent operations 37 times – the highest number of any NHS trust in England.

On 15 June 2022, the BBC published an article stating that the Care Quality Commission inspection found that the maternity unit was unsafe with problems in adequately trained staff and suitable equipment they also found that in 2021 there five patients had major haemorrhages after giving birth at the hospital, resulting in a need for unplanned hysterectomies.

On 8 August 2025, the CQC issued an urgent warning notice to the hospital after inspectors found repeated inadequacies in its emergency care unit, including "critical gaps" in sepsis treatment, and the routine provision of patient care in corridors. The unit was rated inadequate requiring improvement.

References

References

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2. (28 September 2009). "Services – Countess Of Chester Hospital – NHS". NHS.
3. "A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 part 2: The City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions". Victoria County History.
4. (19 June 2014). "Help hospital recreate historic day". Chester Chronicle.
5. "Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust". Renal Association.
6. (24 January 2007). "Hospital "stubs out" bad example". BBC News.
7. (1 October 2013). "Hospital wing will create terrific critical care unit in Chester".
8. "Rex v. Lucy Letby: sentencing remarks". Ministry of Justice.
9. (21 August 2023). "Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby given whole-life sentence". BBC News.
10. (4 February 2025). "Lucy Letby: Why are medical experts disputing evidence?".
11. Mathew, Rammya. (29 August 2023). "Rammya Mathew: Lucy Letby and the limits of a no blame culture". BMJ.
12. Scolding, Fiona. (30 August 2024). "Written opening submissions on behalf of the Royal College of Paediatrics and CHild Heath ("RCPCH")".
13. "Cheshire Constabulary statement regarding Countess of Chester Hospital (4 October 2023)".
14. (4 October 2023). "Lucy Letby: Corporate manslaughter probe at Chester hospital". BBC.
15. "Gross negligence manslaughter arrests made in Lucy Letby Countess hospital probe".
16. "Bowmere Hospital". CWP NHS Foundation Trust.
17. "Ancora House". CWP NHS Foundation Trust.
18. (4 April 2019). "Countess of Chester Hospital says no to Wales' patients". BBC News.
19. (14 April 2019). "Hospitals could ban Welsh patients over funding row". [[The Times]].
20. "Statistics » A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions".
21. "Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust NHS performance ratings (2003/2004): Trust detail report".
22. "The Countess of Chester Hospital".
23. (3 December 2014). "Chester doctors go to war with council over sexual health". Chester Chronicle.
24. (11 May 2016). "Rise in urgent operations being cancelled". Health Service Journal.
25. (15 June 2022). "Countess of Chester Hospital maternity services unsafe – report". BBC News.
26. Halliday, Josh. (8 August 2025). "Emergency care at Lucy Letby hospital falls short of legal standards, CQC finds". The Guardian.