St George's Hospital

St George's Hospital
St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Geography
Location Tooting, Wandsworth, London, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system Public NHS
Hospital type Teaching
Affiliated university St George's, University of London
Services
Emergency department Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds >1300
History
Founded 1733 (Hyde Park Corner), 1976 (current site)
Links
Website http://www.stgeorges.nhs.uk
Lists Hospitals in England
Other links St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Founded in 1733, St George’s Hospital is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals.[1] It is run by the St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It shares its main hospital site in Tooting in the London Borough of Wandsworth, with the St George's, University of London which trains NHS staff and carries out advanced medical research.

The hospital has around 1,000 beds and most general tertiary care such as accident and emergency, maternity services and care for older people and children. However, as a major acute hospital, St George's Hospital also offers specialist care for the more complex injuries and illnesses, including trauma, neurology, cardiac care, renal transplantation, cancer care and stroke. It is also home to one of four major trauma centres and one of eight hyper-acute stroke units for London.

St George's Hospital also provides care for patients from a larger catchment area in the South East of England, for specialities such as complex pelvic trauma. Other services treat patients from all over the country, such as family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases. The trust also provides a nationwide endoscopy training service.

As of the end of 2014 it was the subject of the Channel 4 documentary "24 hours in A&E".

History

In 1716 Henry Hoare, William Wogan, Robert Witham and Patrick Cockburn decided to open the Westminster Public Infirmary in Petty France, London in 1720, and quickly relocated to larger premises in Chapel Street in 1724. By 1732 the Governors were forced to seek an even larger building. The majority of the Governors favoured a house in Castle Lane but a minority preferred Lanesborough House.[2][3]

The original site was in Lanesborough House at Hyde Park Corner, originally built in 1719 by James Lane, 2nd Viscount Lanesborough[4][5] in what was then open countryside. The new St George's Hospital was arranged on three floors and accommodated 30 patients in two wards: one for men and one for women. The hospital was gradually extended and, by 1744, it had fifteen wards and over 250 patients.[6]

St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. architect William Wilkins

By the 1800s, the hospital was slipping into disrepair. The old Lanesborough House at Hyde Park Corner was demolished to make way for a new 350 bed facility designed by architect William Wilkins. Building began in 1827 and was completed by 1844.

By 1859, a critical shortage of beds led to the addition of an attic floor. This was soon insufficient and led to the creation of a new convalescent hospital, Atkinson Morley's in Wimbledon, freeing up beds at St George's for acute patients.

A medical school was established in 1834 at Kinnerton Street and was incorporated into the hospital in 1868. The Medical School, now St George's, University of London, was built in the south-west corner of the hospital site in Hyde Park, with the main entrance in Knightsbridge and the back entrance in Grosvenor Crescent Mews.

In 1948, the National Health Service was introduced and plans for a new site for St George's at The Grove Fever and Fountain Hospitals at Tooting were eventually agreed upon. In 1954, the Grove Hospital became part of St George's, and clinical teaching started in Tooting.


Relocation to Tooting

In 1973, building began on the new site. The new hospital and school buildings were now well advanced. The School was completed, as were two wings of the new hospital, which provided a total of 710 beds. In 1976, the Medical School opened at Tooting and, in 1980, St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner closed its doors for the last time.[6] (The building still stands and is now The Lanesborough Hotel on the west side of Hyde Park Corner.)

In 1981, medical education in London was reorganized to recognize the movement of population away from the centre. There are now fewer, larger medical schools in London. The expansion of St George's, University of London (formerly St George's Hospital Medical School) has become part of this policy.

In 2003, neuroscience services located at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon moved to the brand new Atkinson Morley Wing on the main St George's site. This addition to the hospital now also houses cardiac and cardiothoracic services which have moved from the old fever hospital wards. St George's today provides a total of over 1000 beds making it one of the biggest in the country.

In April 2010 St George’s Healthcare became part of the South West London and Surrey Trauma Network (SWLSTN). All Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments within the network continue to provide trauma services with St George’s designated as the major trauma centre. It is one of a small number of A&E departments to benefit from Pearson Lloyd’s redesign - ‘A Better A&E’ - which reduced aggression against hospital staff by 50 per cent. A system of environmental signage provides location-specific information for patients. Screens provide live information about how many cases are being handled and the current status of the A&E department.[7]

On Friday 1 October St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust integrated with Community Services Wandsworth, after approval from NHS London. The change aims to significantly improve care given to local people, by providing more care in their own homes, reducing unnecessary admissions to hospital and helping patients leave hospital as soon as it is safe for them to do so.

In May 2014 the Trust's application for Foundation Trust status was approved by the NHS Trust Development Authority following a positive rating from the Care Quality Commission. In the last five years the trust has turned around a large deficit and repaid a debt of £34m. The TDA identified several areas that the trust will have to work on to ensure it gets through the final stages of FT assessment. These include improving its A&E performance against the four-hour waiting time target and putting together a robust operating plan for the next two years.[8]

Controversies

Around 1788, the famous George Lukins of Yatton,[9] spent twenty weeks at St. George's Hospital, and was pronounced incurable by the medical community there.[10][11]

Notable students and staff

Among those who have been associated with St George's are:


See also

References

  1. ↑ "University guide 2015: St George's, University of London". Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  2. ↑ The History of St George's Hospital
  3. ↑ Image of St George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London, c 1837
  4. ↑ Lanesborough House British History Online
  5. ↑ The London high life
  6. 1 2 History of St George's Hospital Medical School
  7. ↑ "A&E department redesign ‘cuts aggression by half’". Design Week. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  8. ↑ "TDA approves teaching hospital's foundation trust bid". Health Service Journal. 2 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  9. ↑ Hannah More: the first Victorian. E. and H. Hosford, Printers. Retrieved 2007-12-31. Mrs. Easterbrook was probably the recently widowed mother of the Revd Joseph Easterbrook, vicar of the Temple church in Bristol and one of the most prominent clergymen in the city. In June 1788 he had been controversially involved in an incident which a tailor named George Lukins, from the Mendip village of Yatton, had claimed to be possessed by demons. He and six 'Wesleyan' ministers performed an exorcism in front of a great crowd in the Temple church, after which Lukins was described as calm, happy, and thankful for his deliverance.
  10. ↑ The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed: Compiled from Authentic Sources, both Ancient and Modern, giving an Account of Various and Strange Phenomena existing in Nature of Travels, Adventures, Singular Providences, &c. E. and H. Hosford, Printers. Retrieved 2007-12-31. Every method that variety of persons have suggested, have been exerted without success; and some years ago he was sent to St. George's Hospital, where he remained about twenty weeks, and was pronounced incurable.
  11. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica; or A dictionary of arts, sciences, and ... Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2007-12-31. He asserts that Lukin's first seizure was nothing more than a fit of drunkennessl that he always foretold his firs, and remained sensible during their continuance; that he frequently saw Lukins in his firs, 'in every one of which, except in singing, he performed not more than most active young people easily do; that he was detected in an imposture with respect to the clenching of his hands; that after money had been collected for him, he got suddenly well; that he never had any first while he was at St. George's Hospital in London; nor when visitors were excluded from his lodgings, by desire of the author of the Narrative; and that he was particularly careful never to hurt himself by his exertions during the paroxysm.
  12. ↑ Geoffrey Davies obituary

Coordinates: 51°25′36″N 0°10′33″W / 51.4267°N 0.1757°W / 51.4267; -0.1757

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