Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital: An Oral History. (360G-Wellcome-079280_Z_06_Z)

The imminent closure of the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in Coventry city centre, and relocation to a purpose-built 'super hospital' on the city's outskirts, marks a significant moment in the history of the NHS. We are currently preparing a programme of public activities to engage the local community in the contemporary and historical issues arising from this event. To this end we have committed funds from our operating budget to employ a Research Assistant at 50% for nine months. His duties will include collecting oral testimony and writing a brief synthetic history for the project website. The purpose of this application (for funds to make the RA full-time and provide equipment) is to add three academic goals to a programme otherwise directed towards public engagement: 1. To extend the quantity, range, and depth of the oral history so that it is of greater academic significance; 2. To develop a more sophisticated contemporary history of the closure based on original archival sources and oral testimony and set within a national context; 3. To communicate the research findings to the academic community in the form of two articles in refereed journals in the history of medicine.