About Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dorset County Hospital sits at the heart of the community as the main provider of acute care to around 250,000 people in the west of Dorset.

With an annual budget of £256 million, we provide a full range of district general services, including an Emergency Department, Critical Care Unit and Maternity Unit, and links with satellite units in Dorset’s community hospitals.

We also provide renal services for patients throughout Dorset and South Somerset; a total population of 850,000.

We were founded on our current site in the centre of the county town of Dorchester in 1987 and achieved Foundation Trust status in 2007.

Our hospital has approximately 350 beds, seven main theatres and two day theatres, and has been designed with a major commitment to Public Arts in Hospital.

Our 3,500 staff come from a wide range of backgrounds, working across GP surgeries, schools, in residential homes and in people’s own homes as well as DCH and the community hospitals.

We also work closely with our health and social care partners to ensure integrated services are provided to our population.

For many of our roles, we encourage and receive applications from people across the world and are proud to employ such a large and diverse workforce.

DCH Staff
People, Place and Partnership

We are a key partner in the Dorset Integrated Care System ‘Our Dorset’ and our own Trust Strategy aligns with the next steps for the ICS, acknowledging that it must also be unique to the needs and requirements of our patients and population.

We are focusing on three strategic themes: People, Place and Partnership.

These themes have been created out of the learning from engagement and acknowledgement of local challenges, and capture the ambitions that we want to achieve as a Trust.

  • People – Putting our people first to make DCH a great place to work and receive care.
  • Place – Delivering outstanding care by building a better and healthier place for our patients and population.
  • Partnership – Working together to ensure outstanding services, accessible to our patients and population.

The Trust in numbers

DCH Infographic