What We Do and Who We Serve
Poole Hospital mainly serves the 272,000 people living in Poole, East Dorset and Purbeck. It is the major trauma centre for East Dorset and provides a broad range of district hospital care and a number of core services - ear, nose & throat, child health and maternity - for a wider catchment area, including Bournemouth and Christchurch. The hospital also provides specialist services, such as oral surgery and neurological care, for the whole of Dorset and is the Cancer Centre for Dorset.
We have a unique philosophy embedded in "The Poole Approach". This has shaped our development as a friendly, patient centred organisation that continually strives to improve services.
Last year we treated 46,815 inpatients, 17,597 day cases, 172,710 out patients and 56,557 people attended the Emergency Department. At least 85 per cent of our inpatient admissions are unplanned emergency cases. As the major trauma centre for east Dorset, the hospital provides services for all medical, elderly, surgical and child health emergency admissions.
Our workload has increased in other areas as a result of the growth of the local population; a high percentage of elderly and very elderly people; a reduction in the number of elderly nursing care beds in the locality; more patients being referred by GPs; new treatments and rising patient expectations; and the development of specific services.
Also in this section: