December 3, 2002: The hospital opens the first patients to arrive are emergency cases. The move is completed within a week.

December 13: Pensioner Catherine Sutherland disappears and is found 24-hours later in a store cupboard by a sniffer dog.

January: Hospital managers fax GPs across town asking them not to send emergency patients to the A&E department because all beds and trolleys are full. Non-emergency operations have to be cancelled.

March: While other hospitals are criticised for fiddling figures on waiting lists, the GWH is praised for not manipulating statistics. Waiting lists are found to be falling.

May: Hundreds of patients are being cared for on trolleys after another rise in emergency admissions.

July: The Commission for Health Improvement awards the hospital two out of a possible three stars for performance. But during the same month, it also revealed that the hospital Trust is shouldering a £572,000 debt. A report also finds that complaints have risen by 18 per cent over the previous year to 273.

August: Hygiene and cleanliness is praised in a report by the Patient Environment Action team. The report also found food standards could be improved.

September: Heart patient Maria Chivers stages a five-and-a-half hour sit-in to protest against poor service.

November: The hospital becomes one of the first in the country to start using digital technology to look at X-rays. The system will save £250,000 a year on film.