St George's Hospital

St George's Hospital, founded in 1733, is a teaching hospital in London, England. It has continuously trained medical students since that date.

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.

The original site was in Lanesborough House at Hyde Park Corner, originally built in 1719 by the James Lane, 2nd Viscount Lanesborough, 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.

By the 1800s, the hospital was slipping into disrepair. The old Lanesborough House at Hyde Park Corner (now the location of The Lanesborough hotel) was demolished to make way for a new 350 bed new facility. Building began in 1827 designed by architect William Wilkins and the new hospital 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. (That 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, neurosciences services located at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon moved to the brand new Atkinson Morley Wing on the main St George's site. This stunning addition to the hospital now serves as one of the most advanced Neurosurgical and Neurology Centres in the world today, backed by a leading research department. Cardiac and cardiothoracic services have now moved from the old fever hospital wards to the new wing. St George's today provides a total of over 1100 beds making it the largest hospital in London and one of the biggest in the country.

Recently St George's Hospital has come under considerable scrutiny after a massive £21 million deficit, placing it squarely in the sights of the UK Government's overspending "hit squad". However, being a massive provider of healthcare in the area, some consider it to be as its name represents, the martyr hospital.

Famous students and staff
Among those who have been associated with St George's are:


 * Henry Gray, anatomist
 * Harry Hill, stand-up comedian and TV funny man
 * John Hunter, father of modern surgery
 * Edward Jenner, introduced vaccination for smallpox
 * Judah Hirsch Quastel, biochemist
 * Thomas Spencer Wells, pioneer in abdominal surgery
 * Thomas Young, physician, mathematician and hieroglyphicologist