Accommodation for NHS staff working in Rugby

The Hospital of St Cross stands on Barby Road on the southern edge of Rugby, above a steep slope down to the Sow Brook valley. It is managed by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and the wider range of specialist services is at University Hospital Coventry, about ten miles away.

St Cross opened in July 1884 with 31 beds, three nurses and four support staff, paid for by Richard Henry Wood and his wife Elizabeth on land they gave off Barby Road. It took on the services of St Luke's Hospital in 1993, a rehabilitation centre followed in 2014 and the Maple Unit, a haematology and oncology centre, opened in 2021.

Because the two hospitals share a trust, rotations and agency shifts can move between them. Sullivan Heights is about 2 miles by road from University Hospital Coventry, while Stoke Lodge and Stoke House are the nearest homes to St Cross, about 11 miles away. A clinician can choose the house that suits where most of the shifts fall.

Each house has a kitchen for meals at odd hours, a washing machine and self check-in, so arriving after a late finish means letting yourself in rather than waiting at a desk.