Glasgow Royal Infirmary

The Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) is a large teaching hospital, operated since 1947 by NHS Scotland, situated on the north-eastern edge of the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland at 55.86446°N, -4.23418°W.

Designed by Robert and James Adam, the Royal Infirmary opened in December 1794. The infirmary was built beside Glasgow Cathedral on land that held the ruins of the Bishop's Castle, which dated from at least the 13th century but had been allowed to fall into disrepair. A Royal Charter was obtained in 1791, that granted the Crown-owned land to the hospital. The original Adams building had five floors (one underground) holding eight wards (giving the hospital just over a hundred beds) and a circular operating room on the fourth floor with a glazed dome ceiling.

After a number of additional buildings were added, the first in 1816, a specialist fever block in 1829 and a surgical block in 1861, the original Adams building was replaced in 1907 with a new building designed by James Miller. In 1924, the surgical block in which Joseph Lister had worked was also torn down to be replaced.

Since 1974, the Greater Glasgow Health Board had envisaged the replacement of the original buildings with a brand new hospital, but only the first phase of this was ever realised - the New Building was completed in 1983. It is located on the north of the hospital site overlooking Alexandra Parade and the M8 motorway, and is linked to the Surgical Wing of the original Royal Infirmary building at basement level via a link corridor, with a further pedestrian entrance at lower basement level on Wishart Street (adjacent to the Necropolis).

After the closure of the Rutherglen Maternity Hospital and the Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital, a new maternity building was added to the east of the New Building; the Princess Royal Maternity building opened in 2001. Following the closure of Canniesburn Hospital, in 2002 the Jubilee building was opened, adding purpose-built Accident & Emergency facilities and a plastic surgery unit. The Infirmary now has over one thousands beds.

Notable staff
In 1856, Joseph Lister became an assistant surgeon at the Infirmary and a professor of surgery in 1860. Running the new surgery block, Lister noted that about half of his patients died from sepsis. Having read Louis Pasteur's paper on rotting and fermentation caused by micro-organisms, Lister experimented to find ways to prevent sepsis. This experimentation lead to using carbolic acid to clean instruments and hands before and after surgery. Lister's methods were picked up around the world and he is now considered the "the father of modern antisepsis".

In 1875, a student of Lister, William Macewen joined the Infirmary surgery as an assistant surgery and became a full surgeon in 1877. While at the Infirmary he introduced the practice of doctors wearing sterilisable white coats, performed some of the first bone grafts, developing a one-piece osteotome and performing a number of studies on animal bones that lead to treatments for a number of bone-related maladies. His work was immortalised in a number of medical terms, such as Macewen's triangle, Macewen's operation and Macewen's sign,

In 1896, John Macintyre, Medical Electrician at the Infirmary, opened one of the first radiological departments in the world.

In 1908, one of Macewen's students James Hogarth Pringle, developed the Pringle manoeuvre which is used to control bleeding during liver surgery.

Professor Ian Donald, working in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, was one of the pioneers of diagnostic ultrasound.