Western General Hospital

55°57′44″N 3°14′06″W / 55.962142°N 3.234947°W / 55.962142; -3.234947OrganisationCare systemNHS ScotlandTypeGeneral HospitalAffiliated universityUniversity of Edinburgh Medical SchoolServicesEmergency departmentMinor Injuries Unit onlyBeds570HistoryOpened1868LinksWebsiteWestern General Hospital

The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply ‘The Western General’) is a health facility at Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.^[1][2]

History

The hospital was designed by Peddie and Kinnear and opened as the St. Cuthberts and Canongate Poorhouse in 1868, principally as a workhouse but also having some hospital functions.^[3] It was later renamed Craigleith Poorhouse.^[4][5] In 1915, during the First World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office to create the 2nd Scottish General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties.^[6] After returning to poorhouse use in 1920 it was converted fully to hospital use in 1927. A nurses' home was added in 1935 and a pathology block was completed in 1939.^[5] It joined the National Health Service in 1948 and a new library was completed in 1979.^[5]

The first Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre opened on the Western General Hospital site in 1996.^[7]

In June 2012 the Medicine for the Elderly services were transferred from the Royal Victoria Hospital to a new purpose-built facility known as the Royal Victoria Building at the Western General Hospital.^[8]

A facility to treat young people with cancer aged 16 to 24 was opened in the Western General Hospital in December 2013.^[9]

Buildings

Buildings include:^[10]

• Nuffield Transplant Unit by Peter Womersley, 1955 – distinctive modernist architecture and pedestrian bridge over the south access road
• A range of functional buildings from the 1950s (including surgical theatres) by Basil Spence
• Nurses Home by City Architect (Ebenezer MacRae) 1935
• Pathology Department by City Architect (Ebenezer MacRae) 1939
• Royal Victoria Building. The RVB was built primarily as a replacement for the Royal Victoria Hospital, a Medicine of the Older Adult assessment and rehabilitation Unit.

Services

The hospital has over 700 beds including day beds.^[11] Although the Western no longer has an Accident and Emergency department, a nurse-led minor injuries unit has been operating on the site since 1994.^[12]

The hospital served as a base for the neurology and neurosurgery centre for south east Scotland ("Department of Clinical Neurosciences") ^[13] until the department moved to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at Little France in 2020.^[14]

There is a major national cancer research and treatment centre at the hospital which was refurbished in 2007.^[15]

References

External links

• Media related to Western General Hospital, Edinburgh at Wikimedia Commons
• Western General Hospital Official site