On 14 January 1957, the British United Provident Association (
BUPA) established the Nursing Homes Charitable Trust to acquire and build community facilities equipped for the demands of modern medicine. In 1957 the President of BUPA,
William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, suggested the charity might benefit from incorporating his name so was re-registered as the Nuffield Nursing Homes Trust (NNHT). At this time the Trust purchased the Strathallan nursing home in
Bournemouth for £23,150. It was closed for ten months to be refurbished and reopened as the first Nuffield Hospital. In its first ten years, the Trust acquired and modernised a total of six dilapidated nursing homes and built seven new ones, together providing more than 400 beds. The earliest purpose-built hospital opened at
Woking in 1962; others followed at
Exeter,
Shrewsbury,
Hull,
Birmingham and
Slough. In 1966, NNHT opened a new flagship hospital in London's
Bryanston Square, at a cost of over half a million pounds. The trust ran all sites on a strictly self-supporting, though non-profit-making, basis. Charges from patients were expected to cover not only operating costs but repairs and depreciation. By 1982, NHHT had grown to 31 hospitals and 1,076 beds. In 1983, the trading name was changed to Nuffield Hospitals, the 'nursing homes' element no longer conveyed the focus on modern hospitals rather than nursing homes. A new direction was taken in 2005, when Tweed Park and Sona Fitness were acquired and merged to become Proactive Health, a new business arm providing clinical health services to public and corporate members. In 2007, Cannons Health & Fitness was acquired, increasing services to include physiotherapy, weight management and health assessments. In July 2008, Nuffield Hospitals, Proactive Health and Cannons merged to become Nuffield Health, connecting fitness, prevention and treatment under a single brand, governance and management structure. The acquisition in 2014 of a further nine health clubs from
Virgin Active,
LA Fitness in Chester and in 2015, a further two sites in London (CityPoint, Moorgate and Market Sports, Shoreditch) broadened the Nuffield Health national network of Fitness & Wellbeing Gyms to 77 branches. ==Development==