Staff praise 100-year-old hospital's community spirit

Staff past and present at a hospital that is marking its centenary this summer have celebrated its "special community spirit".

Andover War Memorial Hospital was officially opened in June 1926 by former British Army officer and imperial governor Field Marshal Viscount Allenby and built with funds raised locally.

It joined the NHS in 1948 and traces its initial foundation to a small cottage hospital in Junction Road, which was started in 1876.

Sue Harriman, the chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said the hospital would play a vital role for people in the community for many years to come.

Jenny Scott-Jones moved from Scotland to work at the hospital as a nurse and her grandfather helped build it in the 1920s.

Meeting up with former colleague Iris Anderson at an event to mark the centenary, Scott-Jones said the hospital always had a "special community spirit".

"No matter what department you were in, you went and helped. If they were short, you just went and helped," she said.

"You would maybe do a night shift in one department and then a day shift in another. We all worked together."

Donna McCormack, estates coordinator and Scott-Jones' cousin, said many of its staff share a "personal connection" to the hospital.

A free party organised by the Hampshire Hospitals Charity will be held at the Pavilion on 1 August so the wider Andover community can celebrate the hospital's milestone.

Harriman said the hospital had a "secure future" and "an important future as well".

"I think it's important for Hampshire Hospitals but also important for the residents," she said.

"We're incredibly proud of what the hospital offers and over recent years there's been significant investment in state-of-the-art diagnostics on site.

"We have multidisciplinary teams working here, [that are] very connected to our local community and to the neighbourhood.

"It's really important we become part of the neighbourhood health offer and this enables us to do that."