Hammersmith Hospital

File:Details of main building of Hammersmith Hospital, London in spring 2013 (2).JPG

The hospital's origins begin in 1902, when the Hammersmith Poor Law Guardians decided to erect a new workhouse and infirmary on a {{convert|14|acre|adj=on}} site at the north side of Du Cane Road somewhat to the north of Shepherd's Bush. The land, adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, was purchased for £14,500 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A temporary corrugated iron building was erected on the site in 1902 to provide care for victims of a smallpox epidemic that had taken place in the winter of 1901–2. The buildings were designed by the firm of Giles, Gough and Trollope.{{cite book|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Peter|title=The Workhouse Encyclopedia|date=March 2012|publisher=History Press|isbn=9780752477190|page=488|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlc7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT488|language=en}}

File:Circle of Life - geograph.org.uk - 240319.jpg

In February 1916, during the First World War, the patients were moved to other establishments and the site was taken over by the War Office for use as the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, to care for wounded soldiers, largely thanks to the efforts of the noted surgeon Robert Jones.[https://books.google.com/books?id=hX4i-WbW5kMC&dq=shepherds+bush&pg=PA164 Watson, Frederick, p.164, The Life of Sir Robert Jones]. Retrieved July 2011[https://books.google.com/books?id=lE3qgYD-7I4C&dq=shepherds+bush&pg=PA116 Reznick, Jeffrey Stephen, p.116, Healing the Nation: Soldiers and the Culture of Caregiving in Britain]. Retrieved July 2011 At that time the Joint War Committee awarded the hospital the sum of £1,000 to begin its work, soon followed in 1918 by a further grant of £10,000. The hospital was also supported by donations from the public. Part of the rehabilitation process involved putting the recovering patients to work in local shops, a policy which does not appear to have been entirely popular among the soldiers themselves.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vxi-T1yJOUgC&q=shepherds+bush&pg=PA191 |last=Gerber|first= David, A.|title=Disabled veterans in history|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0472035083|page=191}}

Later it was renamed the Special Surgical Hospital, and in 1919 became the Ministry of Pensions Hospital. In April 1925 demands by the Hammersmith Guardians for return of their property finally succeeded and the site became Hammersmith Hospital.{{cite web|url=https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/hammersmith.html|title=Hammersmith Hospital|publisher=Lost hospitals of London|access-date=13 May 2018}} By 1930, the infirmary could accommodate 300 patients.{{cite web|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Peter|title=The Workhouse in Hammersmith, London: Middlesex|url=https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Hammersmith/|publisher=workhouses.org.uk|access-date=8 May 2017}}

During the Second World War the hospital amassed expertise on the effects of crush syndrome and kidney failure as a result of treating air raid victims. The hospital refectory was completely destroyed during one air raid. Roger Daltrey, the singer and actor, was born at the hospital in 1944.{{cite web|title=Hospitals|url=http://www.derelictlondon.com/hospitals.html|publisher=Derelict London}}

The hospital was home to the first medical linear accelerator in the world at the MRC's Radiotherapeutic Research Unit, where the first patient was treated in 1953.{{cite journal|last1=Thwaites|first1=David I|last2=Tuohy|first2=John B|title=Back to the future: the history and development of the clinical linear accelerator|journal=Physics in Medicine and Biology|date=7 July 2006|volume=51|issue=13|pages=R343–R362|doi=10.1088/0031-9155/51/13/R20|pmid=16790912|s2cid=7672187 }}{{cite web|title=Gallop, John Winston (b 1910)|url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=10823&inst_id=20|website=AIM25|access-date=12 July 2016}} The Commonwealth Building, which included the postgraduate medical school, the Wellcome Library and some research departments, was opened by the Queen in May 1966.

Until 1997 the hospital was the home of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, which then became part of Imperial College.{{cite web|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/archives/InformationCompendium/biogs/E000215b.htm|title=Royal Postgraduate Medical School of London (1974 - 1997)|publisher=Imperial College, London|access-date=13 May 2018}} The Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology (IRDB) was established by Professor Lord Winston on the site in 2001.{{cite web|title=Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology (IRDB)|url=https://www1.imperial.ac.uk/reproductivemedicine/irdb/|website=Imperial College London|access-date=19 July 2016}} In October 2007 Imperial College Healthcare and Imperial College formed the first academic health science centre from resources that included the academic expertise of Hammersmith Hospital and St Mary's Hospital.{{cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=402252|title=University interventions aim to help heal a 'broken' NHS|access-date=5 November 2010|work=Times Higher Education|date=5 June 2008}} In April 2024, Hammersmith Hospital had announced a pilot six-month trial intended to improve kidney transplant outcomes, by watching white blood cell types with donors.{{Citation |year=10 April 2024 |title=Hammersmith Hospital trial to double match blood for kidney transplants |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68778370 |access-date=}}

File:Hammersmith Hospital from Wormwood Scrubs Park in London, July 2013.JPG]]

Hammersmith Hospital is internationally renowned for clinical research. Its clinical reputation was built on the treatment of medical conditions notably of the heart and kidney. It is also famous for its significant role in creating the specialty of Endocrine surgery (the first international course on Endocrine Surgery was held here by Professors Selwyn Taylor and Richard Welbourn in 1971).{{cite web|url=https://www.baets.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/History-of-BAETS.pdf|publisher=British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons|title=A Short History|access-date=15 September 2019}} Its services now include the Heart Attack Centre (Primary PCI Centre) for North West London, a leukaemia wing (The Catherine Lewis Centre){{cite web|url=https://www.thersp.co.uk/projects-lists/project7.htm |title= The Catherine Lewis Centre|publisher=RSP|access-date=13 May 2018}} the Department of Thyroid and Endocrine Surgery (serving North West London and pan-UK referrals and hosting the Selwyn Taylor Fellow){{Cite web|url=http://www.imperialendo.com/for-patients/s/endocrine-surgery|title=Endocrine surgery - Imperial Centre for Endocrinology|website=www.imperialendo.com}} and the West London Renal and Transplant Centre.{{cite web|url=https://units.renal.org/index.pl?c=westlondon|title=London - West London Renal and Transplant Centre|publisher=The Renal Association|access-date=13 May 2018}} The Medical Research Council (MRC) also has a major presence at Hammersmith Hospital through the London Institute of Medical Sciences providing a strong foundation for clinical and scientific research, with extensive research and development of imaging techniques.{{cite web|url=https://lms.mrc.ac.uk/about-us/|title=About us|publisher=London Institute of Medical Sciences|access-date=13 May 2018}}

Hammersmith's accident and emergency unit closed in 2014, to be replaced by 24-hour urgent care centers. Patients suspected of having a heart attack would still be taken to Hammersmith, which had one of London's eight heart attack centers. Protests over the change were held outside Hammersmith Hospital, with members of the London Assembly voicing opposition. A spokesperson for the Imperial College Healthcare Trust stated the change was to consolidate emergency care services in other hospitals,{{Citation |year=10 September 2014 |title=Hammersmith and Central Middlesex A&E departments close |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-29131904 |access-date=}} as part of the government's Shaping a Healthier Future program. St. Mary's Hospital was chosen to take Hammersmith Hospital's future accident and emergency department patients when it closed in September 2014.{{Citation |year=30 May 2014 |title=St Mary's Hospital A&E at 'maximum' capacity |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-27639139 |access-date=}}

In 2023, the BBC reported that Steven Barclay had potentially misled parliament by saying that a refurbishment of Hammersmith Hospital was being carried out. He stated the hospital was having a rehabilitation cardiac hub being built, which the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the hospital's manager, denied.{{Citation |year=1 June 2023 |title=Hospital works yet to start despite claim - Trust |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c848w1pkj2lo |access-date=}}

• List of hospitals in England

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{{Commons category|Hammersmith Hospital}}

• [https://www.imperial.nhs.uk/ Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust's official site]
• [https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=London&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&z=17&ll=51.517202,-0.236067&spn=0.002938,0.010643 Aerial photo at Google Maps]

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{{Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust}}

{{Imperial College School of Medicine}}

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Category:Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Category:NHS hospitals in London

Category:White City, London

Category:Poor law infirmaries

Category:Military hospitals in the United Kingdom