The East Ward was also called “The Nightingale Ward” in grateful recognition of the munificent donation of £1000 from Miss Nightingale. Three beds were kept reserved for medical recommendations on the female ward, the rest were for patients without recommendations. In the original building each patient had 2,000 cubic feet allowed. The east ward was enlarged in 1903 after the accommodation for women was found to be inadequate.
It was this ward that became part of the new maternity unit in 1980 following the closure of Listerdale and Moorgate maternity hospitals. The closure of the same unit occurred four years later when the service moved to a purpose built, better equipped unit at District General. One member of the local National Childbirth Trust described the twenty bed ward with four labour suites and a special care baby unit “like a cosy, little cottage hospital but in the middle of town”.
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