The old meets the new - the new hospital rises as The Royal London celebrates its 250th anniversary
14 September 2007
This week sees two landmarks in the history of The Royal London Hospital – the completion of the lift shafts for its new buildings around which the rest of the structure will be constructed and the 250th anniversary of the hospital opening in Whitechapel.
Founded in a pub by seven friends with but a shilling in the bank, The Royal London Hospital was borne out of humble beginnings. Despite this, the organisation has grown to become one of the UK’s leading teaching hospitals.
Foundation
The establishment of The London Hospital (as it was known before being granted its Royal title) was brought about by the founding group’s desire to help London’s underprivileged, poverty-stricken east-end population. And in celebrating its 250th anniversary at Whitechapel, it is evident the initial loyalty to the local community has never wavered – indeed, it has been extended to patients from the City, Essex and beyond.
The founding aspiration to help others is reflected in the hospital’s coat of arms, which reads: ‘Humani nihil a me alienum puto’, meaning ‘I am human therefore any human is my concern’.
On 20 September 1757 the original £18,000 Whitechapel hospital was opened, funded entirely from charitable donations and the hospital was supported this way until the creation of the National Health Service in 1948.
Past medical students and professionals
The hospital boasts a distinguished history of medical practice, training and research, with many famous medical professionals having trained, taught, worked and given support to The London Hospital.
England’s first hospital-based medical school was established at The London in 1785 and renowned medical practitioners who have trained there include: James Parkinson (who identified Parkinson’s disease in 1817), John Langdon-Down (who identified Down’s syndrome in 1859) and Thomas Barnardo (of the Dr Barnardo homes charity).
The hospital also established one of England’s first nursing training schools in 1873, where Edith Cavell was a student before she famously assisted wounded soldiers to escape back to Allied lines in the First World War.
Other famous associations include pioneering surgeons Sir Henry Souttar, who was the first in the world to open a chamber of the heart, and Sir Frederick Treves, who famously operated on King Edward VII two days before the date fixed for his coronation. Sir Frederick Treves is also famous for his connection with Joseph Merrick, known as the ‘Elephant Man’.
Patient care and hospital expansion
Opened to care for London’s eighteenth century east-end community, medical staff at The Royal London treated patients suffering the common diseases of the time – cholera, dysentery, smallpox and typhoid. Difficult as it is to imagine, typical medical treatments encouraged by physicians at the time of the hospital’s founding included bleeding (allowing blood to drain from the body), vomit induction, purging, cold bathing and restriction of food and water.
Anaesthetics were not used in hospitals until the 1840s so all surgery had to be quick. A bell, which today hangs in the hospital museum, was an important part of medical methodology prior to anaesthetics as its ring would summon hospital staff to an operating theatre to hold patients down during painful surgery.
By 1876 The Royal London Hospital was treating about 30,000 patients annually, with around 650 in the hospital at any one time.
In 1896 Sydney Holland (later known as Lord Knutsford) become The London’s Chairman and soon earned himself the title ‘The Prince of Beggars’ for undertaking an enormous fundraising campaign to support hospital developments and improvements. In 1923 a generous acquaintance offered to double all the money Holland raised that year, which totalled no less than £180,000.
London’s Leading Trauma Centre
During the First World War, The London received the first wounded soldiers brought back from The Western Front, and in World War II the hospital continued treating emergency patients in Whitechapel despite its other hospital departments moving outside the capital.
The London Hospital also treated victims of the 1970s IRA bombings and introduced the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) in the late 1980s to respond to London’s most seriously injured patients. HEMS pioneered pre-hospital trauma care in the UK with specially trained doctors and paramedics working alongside the ambulance service.
The Royal London Hospital was the main receiving hospital for people injured in the London bomb attacks on 7 July 2005. A total of 208 people attended the hospital, including 27 people with serious injuries who were admitted, some of whom required extensive surgery and remained in hospital for months. The following day Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth visited the hospital to pay tribute to hospital staff. Also in July 2005 the hospital officially opened its Trauma Ward for patients with multiple injuries.
The Royal London Hospital today and in the future
In 1990 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth granted the hospital its Royal title and in 1994 The Royal London Hospital together with Barts Hospital in Smithfield and The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green, formed one of the first National Health Service Trusts.
In 2002 Barts and The London NHS Trust was granted approval to seek a tender for its hospitals redevelopment project, which was officially approved by the Department of Health in March 2006. The project, the largest and most complex in the UK, will see The Royal London Hospital transformed into Britain’s biggest new hospital, providing both general and specialist services.
In 2006, Barts and The London was ranked England’s top teaching hospital by independent health watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, and it continues to produce some of the best clinical outcomes in the country.
The new Royal London Hospital is already beginning to transform the cityscape of east London, with the completion of the core shafts for its new buildings. Measuring nearly 90 metres high and 150m2, the shafts will house the passenger, patient and goods lifts, stairways and associated lobbies, providing the inner core for the new buildings around which the rest of the structure will be constructed, floor by floor. Most of the new facilities will be complete and operational by 2012.
Currently, Barts and The London NHS Trust treats around 780,000 patients each year, with about 473,000 of those attending The Royal London Hospital. The hospital also has over 4,000 births a year and one of the busiest Accident and Emergency Departments, treating around 500 patients a day.