About the Hospital

Papworth is the UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital. Our services include cardiology, respiratory medicine, and cardiothoracic surgery and we are the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre. We have an extraordinary commitment to delivering the highest levels of clinical quality and providing the best standards of personalised care possible to our patients.

Core Standards Declaration

Papworth Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has achieved all of the core standards for better health, for the second year running. The standards are set and monitored by the Care Quality Commission (formerly the Healthcare Commission), who check whether NHS Trusts have achieved a satisfactory standard of safety, clinical and cost effectiveness, governance, patient focus, accessible and responsive care, environment and amenities, and public health. You can download the full core standards declaration published by the Care Quality Commission.

The Hospital first opened in 1917 as a tuberculosis hospital and when Pendrill Varrier-Jones conceived the idea, he wanted to create not just a hospital, but a community. This sense of community remains, but our work has grown over the years.

During the 1950s, Papworth became one of the region’s main hospitals, developing first thoracic surgery, then cardiac surgery and then cardiology.

The Hospital has a history of pioneering ground-breaking procedures. It was the site of the UK’s first successful heart transplant in 1979, and in 2006 Papworth again took the lead with the country’s first beating heart transplant.

Today, we are a Foundation Trust providing a comprehensive range of specialist services for adults. These services are supported by highly effective and well-equipped: Radiology, Pathology, Immunology, Theatres, Critical Care and Anaesthetics Directorates.

Though historically Papworth has operated as a specialist tertiary centre receiving the majority of referrals from clinicians at other hospitals; increasingly we are developing services that are also directly accessible by GPs through Choose and Book. These include Papworth Direct, our brand new state-of-the-art cardiothoracic diagnostic centre and our Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre.