About us>>Introducing Barts and The London

Introducing Barts and The London

Who we are - World-renowned teaching hospitals

Barts and The London is one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers. Our world-renowned hospitals – St Bartholomew’s (Barts) in the City, The Royal London in Whitechapel and The London Chest in Bethnal Green – have made, and continue to make, an outstanding contribution to modern medicine.

The hospitals’ full portfolio of specialist centres includes the country’s biggest heart attack centre, leading edge cancer specialties, one of the UK’s largest children’s hospitals and a highly successful fertility centre. Home to London’s air ambulance, Barts and The London is also one of the capital’s leading trauma and emergency care centres, offering surgical expertise that also benefits patients requiring more routine procedures.
St Bartholomew's, The Royal London and The London Chest Hospital
St Bartholomew's, The Royal London and The London Chest Hospitals

Where we've come from - Outstanding contribution to modern medicine

Barts is Britain’s oldest hospital (founded 1123) and our school of medicine and dentistry was the country’s first. The history of modern medicine can be traced through our distinguished alumni – clinicians such as founder of modern medicine, William Harvey, Parkinson (Parkinson’s Disease), Langdon-Down (Down’s Syndrome) and Barnardo (child welfare).

From the discovery of the circulation of blood to stem cell research
The history of modern medicine - from the discovery of the circulation of blood to stem cell research

Our three hospitals have made and continue to make an outstanding contribution to modern medicine. Our leading specialists continue a long tradition of clinical excellence.

We continue this pioneering tradition today with outstanding research into the cures and treatments of tomorrow.

Trace the history of modern medicine >>  

 

What we do - Bringing excellence to life

Nurse and patient

Our daily mission is literally bringing excellence to life – giving patients the best possible care so that they can live better, fuller, longer lives. Our tradition of clinical excellence continues today through the comprehensive care provided by our specialist hospitals and centres, from cancer, cardiac and digestive diseases to trauma and emergency care.

Barts and The London’s long tradition of clinical excellence continues today, with some of the best clinical results in the UK - evidenced by one of the best survival rate records in the NHS. By delivering excellence in everything we do, we hope to be the first choice for patients, whether they need routine treatments or more specialist care. 

Who we care for - The two million people of east London

The two million people of east London We receive referrals from overseas and throughout the UK, but the majority of our 700,376 annual attendances are patients living locally. East London is Europe’s most diverse community – from the financial districts of The City and Canary Wharf, to some of Britain’s most deprived areas.

Where we're heading - Our vision for the future

Our vision for the future Our vision is to treat every patient as an important individual and improve the life prospects for our communities and future generations by working to prevent ill-health, diagnosing disease early and delivering services to the highest international standards.

In the future, as a foundation trust and one of the UK’s first academic health sciences centres, our vision is to apply best practice to achieve personal world-class care for our patients. This will be achieved in state-of-the-art facilities where staff receive the highest standards of education and training, and where leading-edge clinical research supports the needs of the communities we serve.

Education and research

We work collaboratively with our academic partners, especially those at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and at St Bartholomew School of Nursing and Midwifery, to support the effective planning and commissioning of education to meet the changing workforce needs of healthcare organisations across north-east London in the future.

Closer alignment of research, teaching and clinical services means that increasing numbers of patients at our hospitals will be some of the first to receive new treatments and cures. 

child

We’ve been busy - vital statistics for 2008-09

  • Total number of attendances 700,376
  • Outpatient attendances 459,681
  • A&E patients, including those attending the walk-in centre 114,263
  • Inpatient and day-case admissions 101,831
  • Number of short-stay patients (under 23 hours) 19,746
  • Babies delivered 4,305, including 388 at the new Barkantine Birth Centre
  • Patients treated in an emergency for a heart attack 581
  • Other heart operations and procedures 7,921 
  • X-rays and scans carried out 318,583
  • Kidneys transplanted 117
  • Pathology tests 7.5 million
  • Meals served to patients 1,023,096
  • London's Air Ambulance, The Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), based at The Royal London Hospital, was tasked to over 1,800 incidents, including the most serious injuries in the capital
  • 40,000 children were cared for by our children's hospital, including 27,000 in our children's A&E
  • 750,000 visits to the Barts and The London website
  • Our switchboard received over 1.38 million calls
  • In construction of our new hospitals 96% of materials from demolition were recycled.