Our hospital

The History of St Anthony's

One hundred years ago, North Cheam House stood in open countryside. Purchased by the Daughters of the Cross for £4625, it became St Anthony’s Hospital. Thus began a history of vital service to the community which, with the more recent addition of St Raphael’s Hospice, continues to this day.

By 1914 the Sisters had replaced the original house, with an imposing building of three storeys and 163 foot frontage of polished brick.

With the founding of the National Health Service in 1948, patients paying according to their means gave way to mainly NHS-financed patients at St. Anthony’s. The unexpected ending of St. Anthony’s NHS contract in the early 1970s coincided with the need to rebuild yet again. This resulted in a highly innovative hospital, designed to further the principles of patient centred care which the Sisters had always advocated. With a speciality in cardiac surgery, the third St Anthony’s set ever new standards in patient care, that spread its reputation far beyond the local area.

The Sisters’ primary objective has always been to provide care to the local community – and 1987 saw the establishment of St Raphael’s Hospice. A beautiful building standing in the grounds of St Anthony’s, its special care and services were to be provided totally free of charge to all those in need. Extended by the Sisters in 1997, St. Raphael’s plays a vital part in the provision of palliative care to local patients and their families – and also in the specialist training of nurses and doctors.

Did you know?

Before being used as a hospital, the original building was the Lord Nelson Inn where horsedrawn coaches would stop on the London to Epsom road.

Mrs. Hoskins and her four year old son, both suffering from tuberculosis, were St. Anthony’s first patients, they were admitted on 5 July 1904.

St. Anthony’s was rebuilt (for the first time) in 1914 when a 100 bed four storey hospital replaced the original building making it one of the largest Catholic hospitals in the country.

When it was rebuilt for the second time in 1975 to a pioneering patient-centred design, St. Anthony’s was one of the first hospitals to offer patients their own single bedrooms.
The cardiac programme began in 1975 with hundreds of patients coming from Holland, Norway and (West) Germany.

Since 1987, St. Raphael’s Hospice, built in the grounds of St. Anthony’s Hospital by the Daughters of the Cross, provides care without charge for patient with terminal illness.

Other healthcare and educational facilities owned by the Daughters of the Cross.

The hospital works with people and the families of people who are severely physically disabled and neurologically impaired. The emphasis is on working with people to fulfil their goals no matter how severe the damage of physical disability or chemical dependency.

St. Elizabeth cares for people with epilepsy providing modern treatment and loving care in comfortable surroundings. In the residential school the children and young people receive the care, eduational and medical support they require in order to prevent epilepsy placing unacceptable risks and unnecessary frustrations in their lives. St. Elizabeth’s provides bungalows for the adults where they can live in small communities. There is also an active day centre where residents are taught various creative skills and are helped to live a full and happy life.

St. Wilfrid’s is the Provincial House and also a residential home for forty four men and women. The aim is to help them retain as much of their independence as possible and to offer them love, care, spiritual support and dignity in their later years.