King's College Hospital

King's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It serves an inner city population of 700,000 in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham.

Early history
King's was originally opened in 1840 in the disused St Clements Dane workhouse in Portugal Street close to Lincoln's Inn Fields. It was used as a training facility where medical students of King's College London could practice and receive instruction from the college's own professors. The surrounding area there was composed of overcrowded slums characterised by poverty and disease. Within two years of opening, the hospital was treating 1290 inpatients in 120 beds, with two patients sharing a bed by no means unusual.

Pioneer of aseptic surgery Joseph Lister performed the first major elective surgery under strict antiseptic conditions in 1877. He helped propel the hospital to have a surgical unit comparable with the best in Europe.

In the first years of the 20th century, demographic changes saw a decrease in the number of patients requiring treatment in the centre of London, and an increase of patients from further afield - notably Camberwell, Peckham and Brixton which were then suburbs on the outskirts of London. Following an act of Parliament in 1904, a foundation stone was laid for the new hospital, designed by William Pite, in 1909 at its present site at Denmark Hill, south of the River Thames. In the same year, King's College became incorporated into the University of London and the hospital was established as a separate legal entity. The move to Denmark Hill provided the Hospital with a greenfield-site nearer to its patients. The building itself incorporated modern design principles to encourage adequate ventilation, used electric clocks throughout, contained only the second internal phone installation in Britain at the time, and generated its own power through the use of diesel engines.

Pre-clinical training of medical students remained the responsibility of King's College, whilst advanced medical training took place at the hospital under the auspices of a newly formed King's College Hospital Medical School. During the period of World War I, a large proportion of the hospital was used for military purposes. A dental school was established at the same site in 1923. During this time most patients were still poor and highly vulnerable to contagious diseases such as tuberculosis. In 1937 the private Guthrie wing was established with a donation from the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society for wealthier patients to enjoy less crowded wards. During the second world war the hospital was used for treating casualties of air raids, and was fortunate never to sustain a major direct hit.

Modern history
Following the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, the hospital was granted Teaching Hospital status. In 1974 the NHS re-organisation saw King's become the centre for all health services management in its catchment area. The hospital's medical school was reunited with King's College in 1983]] to form King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry. A purpose-built medical education centre, the Weston Education Centre, was built in 1997 and contains a medical library as well as hosting conferences, symposia, and professional training events as well as containing public access computer rooms for students. In 1998 King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry merged with the United Medical and Dental Schools (UMDS) of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals to form Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine, commonly abbreviated to "GKT". In 2002 the Golden Jubilee wing was completed, which hosts a number of outpatient clinics as well as therapy suites for speech and language, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy.

Tertiary care specialities
King's Liver Unit is the largest and most comprehensive service of its kind in the world, with a strong interest in pediatric liver cancers. King's also operates the largest liver transplantion programme in Europe.

There is a great deal of expertise within King's Department of Neurology. There is a large outpatient movement disorder clinic, specialising in multidisciplinary team management of Parkinson's disease, dystonia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and related diseases. It is one of only five centres in the European Union designated a "Centre of Excellence" by the National Parkinson Foundation. In 1995 Professor Nigel Leigh established the UK's first specialist Motor Neurone Disease Care & Research Centre, a model of care which has since been reproduced at 13 other centres throughout the country. The emphasis is on rapid diagnosis, management by a multidisciplinary team, with a strong focus on basic science research and clinical trials.

Location
On the opposite side of the A215 (Denmark Hill) is the Maudsley psychiatric hospital, which has close links with King's. The Institute of Psychiatry is nearby and many doctors at King's collaborate with their academic colleagues in carrying out research in conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Motor neurone disease. The Denmark Hill Campus of King's College London is also on Denmark Hill although the main campus is further along the 68 bus route at Aldwych. The nearest train station is Denmark Hill railway station. The hospital is near Ruskin Park on the other side of a railway line.

Famous Alumni

 * James W. Black - 1924- Nobel Prize for Medicine winner 1988 for his contribution to discoveries of important principles for drug treatment
 * William Bowman - 1837-1865 Ophthalmic surgeon, helped found Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom
 * John Leonard Dawson - 1932-1999 Serjeant Surgeon to the Royal Household of the United Kingdom
 * William Fergusson - 1840-1877 Surgeon, introduced practice of conservative amputation
 * David Ferrier - 1871-1908 Pioneering experimental neurologist
 * Joseph Lister - 1887-1893 Pioneer of aseptic surgery