The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), often colloquially referred to as Edinburgh Royal Infirmary or ERI, established in 1729, is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the Kingdom, and later on the Empire

Foundation and early history
John Munro, President of the Incorporation of Surgeons in 1712, set in motion a project to establish a "Seminary of Medical Education" in Edinburgh, of which a General Hospital was an integral part. . His son, Alexander Monro primus, by then Professor of Anatomy, circulated an anonymous pamphlet in 1721 on the necessity and advantage of erecting a Hospital for the Sick Poor. In 1725 the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh wrote to the stock-holders of the Fishery Company, which was about to be wound up, suggesting that they assign their shares for the purpose of such a hospital. Other donors included many wealthy citizens, most of the physicians and several surgeons, numerous Church of Scotland parishes (at the urging of their Assembly) and the Episcopal meeting houses in Edinburgh. The committee set up by the donors leased "a house of small rent" near the College from the University for 19 years.

Also known, at first, as the Hospital for the Sick Poor, the Physicians' Hospital, or Little House, it was established at the head of Robertson's Close on August 6, 1729. A "gentlewoman" was engaged as Mistress or House-keeper, and a "Nurse or Servant" was hired for the patients, both women to be resident and "free of the burden of children and the care of a separate family." The physicians, who had seen the poor gratis twice weekly at their college, arranged for one of their number to attend the hospital, to see both inpatients and outpatients. Six Chirurgeon-Apothecaries (including Alexander Monro) also agreed to attend in turn, and to dispense the medicines prescribed by the physicians from their own shops, also without payment. The first patient, a lady from Caithness suffering from "chlorosis," was discharged recovered after three months. Thirty five patients were admitted in the first year, of whom 19 were cured, 5 recovered, 5 dismissed either as incurable or for irregularities and one died in the hospital (of "consumption"). They came from all over Scotland, but mainly from Edinburgh and its environs. Diseases cured included pains, inflammations, agues, ulcers, cancers, palsies, flux, consumption, hysterick disorders and melancholy.

New locations
It received a Royal Charter in 1736, and in 1741 moved to a new William Adam-designed facility with 228 beds in High School Yards, near Infirmary Street. In 1832, a surgical hospital was added. The surgical hospital was rebuilt in 1853. The Infirmary had public baths attached later.

In 1879, the infirmary moved to a new location, then in the fresher air of the edge of the city. The site, on Lauriston Place, had been occupied by George Watson's Hospital (a school, known then as a hospital). The school moved a short distance away to the former Merchant Maiden Hospital (another school) in Archibald Place. The original school building, by the same William Adam as the earlier infirmary, was incorporated into the new David Bryce-designed infirmary buildings and the chapel remained in use for the entirety of the infirmary's occupation of the site.

The earlier Infirmary Street buildings were demolished in 1884, replaced with public swimming baths and a school. Part of the colonnade of the original building may still be seen in a monument outside the city's Dreghorn Barracks. The original surgical theatre, which was on the roof of the 1741 building, was re-erected in the garden of a South Side villa. The surgical hospital of 1832/1853 later accommodated the Geography Department of the University of Edinburgh, and other university departments, including Natural Philosophy (now Physics), filled up the High School Yards site.

In the 1920s the hospital required to expand, and once again George Watson's College was asked to move. An arrangement was reached to acquire the school's site, with the school to remain there until new premises could be built elsewhere. By 1932 the school's new premises in Colinton Road were ready, and the old Archibald Place building was demolished to make way for the Simpson Memorial Pavilion, used primarily as a maternity wing.

In 1948, the infirmary was incorporated into the National Health Service (NHS). Over the years it has maintained close ties to the University of Edinburgh.

The present site
In August 1998 a contract was signed to build a new Royal Infirmary at Little France, a replacement hospital on a mostly green field site in the south-east of the city. The fact that it serves not just Edinburgh, but also Midlothian and East Lothian makes it a central focus for Edinburgh and its hinterland. The new hospital is linked to the Chancellor's Building, the main teaching facility for the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

In May 2001, Lothian Health Trust sold the 20 acre Lauriston Place site for £30 million to Southside Capital Ltd., a consortium comprising Taylor Woodrow, Kilmartin Property Group, and the Bank of Scotland. It is to be redeveloped as the Quartermile housing, shopping, leisure and hotel development. Much of the David Bryce infirmary will remain visible, but some infirmary buildings have been demolished. After pressure from conservationists including the Cockburn Association, architects Simpson & Brown were commissioned to investigate the possibility of the William Adam building (the original George Watson's College) being taken down and re-erected at the school's Colinton Road campus, or possibly a new site elsewhere.

The Little France site has attracted some controversy in the local media, such as the Edinburgh Evening News, not least because the city's main accident and emergency facilities are some distance from the city centre, and also because the public transport links to the site have been criticised as inadequate. Nevertheless the hospital is served by many bus routes to and from all areas of the city. As of 2006, a new road is being built to increase access by bus.

The new building was designed by Keppie Design and constructed under the controversial PFI system.

The Infirmary in Literature
The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has often been described in works of fiction, biography and history, and depicted from both sides of the blanket. A recent example is the series of mainly humorous novels by Colin Douglas, which cover the postwar era up to the 1980s. The first of these was filmed for BBC television in 1986.