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The Portland Royal Naval Hospital was a naval hospital on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The hospital site was located close to Portland Harbour within the neighbouring village of Castletown. Discounting various other earlier buildings used as a temporary hospital, the main general naval hospital was active from the beginning of the 20th century, and comprised an administration block, surgical block, medical block, officers block and service buildings. It closed in 1957, when it was handed over to the National Health Service, and the NHS Portland Community Hospital is still active today. ==History== The hospital has origins dating back to the 19th-century, following the establishment of the Royal Naval base at Portland Harbour. Before the main site was constructed, an early incarnation of the hospital was made up of what later became the Portland Royal Navy's Sick Quarters, situated further down Castle Road. The original entrance was further along Castle Road than the present once. As a detached branch of the main hospital site, a Zymotic Hospital were also created for as a Royal Naval Infectious Diseases branch, situated on the eastern side of the Merchant's Railway Incline. Around the turn of the century, an additional site along Castle Road had been set-up as part of the hospital, and this is where the current hospital is sited today. Together both of these Castle Road sites worked alongside each other. The higher Castle Road site was selected for the Royal Naval General Hospital, which is the Portland Community Hospital today. It was completed by 1906. In its original function the site was made up of an officers' block, administration block, surgical block and the medical block. An un-timetabled station called Portland Hospital Halt was provided to serve the Portland Naval Hospital. The halt was first used around 1925. With the outbreak of World War II, Portland was a natural target for German aircraft, due to the naval base.〔http://www.geoffkirby.co.uk/PortlandArchivePictures/html/world_war_2.html〕 One of the defensive schemes was the construction of an underground operating theatre. During the war, the underground theatre and surgical block were the only two parts of the hospital to be in full-time operation. Both departments saw many operations undertaken, including most kinds of general surgery. The hospital saw damage from air raids, which led to the decision during July 1940 that as many patients as possible should be moved to a less vulnerable site. Minterne House, located at Minterne Magna in Dorchester was requisitioned for this purpose. After this, Portland's hospital strictly became a casualty and emergency hospital. Despite this the hospital would receive 5,222 inpatients over the course of the war. After the war, Portland's role as a major naval base decreased. The diminishing need for the major naval base at Portland resulted in the hospital being surplus to requirements. On 27 September 1957, the navy handed the hospital over to the National Health Service. The hospital's wards were made ready for NHS patients by 6 October 1957, within just nine days. The first patient admissions were from the surgical ward of the Weymouth and District Hospital. It is uncertain how long the navy continued to use the underground operating theatre. It was rewired during 1954-5, and when the NHS took over the site it was still equipped and functional. In 1996 the Portland Rotary had been successful in gaining access to the underground operating theatre.〔 However after the weekend, steel gates were put on the tunnel entrances and the theatre closed to the public since. By 2005, some outer-buildings had been demolished to make way for Foylebank Way, including Foylebank Court - a residential area consisting of 48 one and two bedroom flats and bungalows for the elderly above 55 years of age. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Naval Hospital, Portland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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