Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free Hospital is a large teaching hospital in London. It is operated by the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust and located in Hampstead, just northwest of central London. The nearest Tube stop is Belsize Park, on the Northern Line.

History
The hospital was founded in Gray's Inn Road, Holborn by the surgeon William Marsden (1796-1867) in 1828 to provide - as the name indicates - free care to those of little means. The royal charter was granted by Queen Victoria in 1837 after a cholera epidemic in which the hospital had extended care to many victims.

The London School of Medicine for Women, since August 1998 a part of the Royal Free & University College Medical School, was the first to train female doctors in the UK.

The hospital is located on Pond Street, Hampstead, where it moved in the 1970s. It also houses part of the medical school and its associated research facilities. Significant advances in the fields of liver medicine (hepatology) and transplantation; renal disease and dialysis; haematology and haemophilia have been made at the Royal Free. The Professorial department of liver medicine is recognized as one of the leading research units of its type in the world. It was founded by the late Prof. Dame Sheila Sherlock, DBE.

The Royal Free Hospital was the first in the UK to appoint a consultant in HIV medicine back in 1989. Dr Margaret Johnson a specialist in thoracic medicine, has built The Royal Free Centre for HIV Medicine, which is at the forefront of treatment of HIV and AIDS. It includes in-patient care on the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson ward, a research team headed by Dr Mike Youle, virology laboratories headed by Prof Clive Loveday, who developed the first viral load tests long before they became part of routine HIV management. The out-patients' centre was opened in 1992 by Sir Ian McKellen and is named after actor Ian Charleson. Its garden, where patients can relax, was opened by Sir Elton John.

In 1998, the hospital and its medical school became embroiled in scandal when they provided a platform for Andrew Wakefield and his campaign against the MMR vaccine.

The hospital itself also offers teaching and placement to nursing students from Middlesex University.

The Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital located in King's Cross, London, is part of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS trust. It houses three inpatient wards (including a paediatric ward), outpatient clinics, operating theatres, a day surgery unit, and a pharmacy.

In the news

 * The UK facial transplantation team, under Mr Peter Butler, are based at the RFH and have recently been granted ethical approval to begin screening patients.
 * I.H. Mallick and colleagues at University College London conducted a study "to evaluate the beneficial effect of ischaemic Preconditioning (IPC), focusing on the intestinal microcirculation and oxygenation in intestinal ischaemia reperfusion (IR) injury." It is hoped that the results of intestinal transplantation may improve by this technique.
 * The Prime Minister Tony Blair and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt paid a visit to the hospital on the 21st May 2007, to learn more about the London PACS project. The Royal Free was the first large acute trust in London to implement PACS across the whole trust.