TWO weeks ago the doors to the medical institution that served Southport and surrounding areas for more than a century closed for the last time.
It was in March 1825 when a charity decided that a building was needed to treat local handloom weavers and the North Meols Local Dispensary was created on a Lord Street site.
Soon demand increased and the dispensary assumed the name Southport Infirmary ahead of a move to Virginia Street in 1870.

This new facility included two special wards that were isolated for the reception of fever and other infectious diseases.
It also had a mortuary, disinfecting house and its own laundry.
In its first year it treated 115 patients, rising to 219 by 1894, but before then, in 1876, concerns were raised over the arrangements for infectious cases and their treatment was discontinued.
The focus for the Infirmary became the response to accidents and non-infectious medical cases.
In 1892, an appeal was made for land to house a new infirmary and the Scarisbrick family stepped forward with the five acre site on which the current Infirmary now stands.

Over three years, and at a cost of £25,000, accommodation for up to 60 patients in men’s women’s and children’s wards became available.
As Southport expanded, so did the Infirmary and in 1899 the Eye, Ear and Throat hospital came aboard.
One of the major developments occurred in 1928, when Christiana Hartley JP proposed to present the town with a fully equipped maternity hospital, opened in 1932.

In the Infirmary’s silver jubilee year, plans were made for considerable extensions, including an additional 128 beds.
And on July 5 1948, it passed from voluntary hands into the newly formed NHS, as one of 14 hospitals under Liverpool Regional Hospital Board.
Further improvements followed, including emergency lighting, a new pharmacy and mortuary refrigeration unit, as well as film processing for the X-Ray department.
The first half of the 1960s saw demand for surgical work rise by 30 percent, alongside a 20 percent increase for all services.

The beginning of the end for the Scarisbrick New Road site came with the construction of the new General Hospital on Town Lane.

Only the audiology, eye unit and Ear, Nose and Throat remained with the latter relocating on March 29, 108 years after first moving into the Infirmary.

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