Name dropping

The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre as it might look if named after Jonny Wilkinson

The England fly-half was among suggestions put to Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre managers in Headington, Oxford, who are considering renaming the hospital.

But while not kicking the idea into touch, NOC chief executive Ed Macalister-Smith hinted that despite staff being asked for ideas, it was unlikely that board members would agree today to drop the well-known title.

After all, it is less than a year since managers successfully fought a private health firm's attempt to adopt Lord Nuffield's name for a new hospital.

Through the staff magazine, Windmill, hospital workers were told that if the trust became a foundation hospital it would be required to add this status to its title.

Proposals for a new name included that of Wilkinson, whose drop-kick in the last minute of extra time won the World Cup final against Australia in November. He was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List.

Other suggestions include the Windmill Hospital, the Skeleton Hospital, the Oxford Hope Centre, the Bones and Brains Trust and the Motor Control Centre.

Mr Macalister-Smith said some of the ideas were not valid suggestions, but it had been important to involve staff in the consultation.

He said: "I think it's always important to involve staff in something as sensitive as naming an organisation and people always have different views about it.

"There's a very strong and important history with Lord Nuffield associated with this hospital and with medicine in Oxford, and that carries a great deal of weight with our staff."

In May, there were fears of possible confusion when the private Nuffield Hospital Group announced plans to call its London Road development the Nuffield Hospital Oxford.

The firm, which owns the Acland Hospital in Banbury Road, backed down and decided to call the building The Manor Hospital, because it was built on Oxford United's former Manor Ground home.