Old Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

The original Queen Elizabeth Hospital is an NHS hospital in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham situated very close to the University of Birmingham. It is being replaced by a new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, nearby.

The hospital provides a whole range of services including secondary services for its local population and regional and national services for the people of the West Midlands and beyond. The hospital had the largest renal transplant programme in the UK,^[1] and is a major specialist centre for liver, heart and lung transplantation, neuroscience and a specialist cancer centre.

The site of the hospital, which is adjacent to the remains of the Roman Metchley Fort, was presented by Cadbury Brothers in 1930. Building began in 1933, and the foundation stone was laid by Edward, Prince of Wales on 23 October 1934. It was designed by Thomas Arthur Lodge with 840 bed spaces, 100 of which were for paying patients. Some wards had 2 or 4 beds but others for ‘regular’ patients held up to 16. When opened on 31 December 1938 by the Duke of Gloucester and his wife, it consisted of the Vincent Medical Block, the Cadbury Surgical Block, and the Nuffield House Nurses’ Home. It became known as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital when it was officially opened by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth,the Queen Mother on 1 March 1939,^[2] just over two years after Elizabeth became queen.^[3]

During the Second World War the occupancy of the hospital rose significantly from 3,165 to 12,136 as it treated civilian and military casualties and many local businesses and university buildings were converted into extra wards. In 1943 the Neurosurgery Department was established. Penicillin was first used in the hospital in 1944. When the war ended, patient numbers at the hospital began to decrease, with staff treating 6000 inpatients, 20,000 outpatients and another 48,000 casualties during 1945. On any given day the QE had 800 inpatients with an average stay of 25 days. The government encouraged and approved the establishment of a 65-bed cancer unit at the QE in 1945. In 1948 the hospital became part of the Birmingham United Hospital Group under the National Health Service.

In 1960, the first heart pacemaker in Britain was at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.^[1] In 1968 an IBM 1440 electronic digital computer was introduced to improve efficiency. In 1970 development began on the west side of the site, particularly an enlarged radiotherapy department and a new laboratory block. 1974 saw the first renal dialysis at the hospital. In 1982 the Queen Elizabeth Hospital came under the control of the West MidlandsRegional Health Authority and in 1995 it was merged with Selly Oak Hospital to become part of the University Hospitals NHS Trust.

In 1997 a new haemophilia unit was opened and Gisela Stuart MP opened the new cardiac laboratories. The turn of the century saw 2 new developments at the Cancer Centre: in 1999 the Patrick Room opened to give advice and information on the different types of the cancer to patients and carers and 2000 saw the official opening of the Young Person’s Unit. In 2001 the Maxillofacial department and the Cardiac Wellcome Building opened and a year later, Gary Lineker opened the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility. Later that year Julie Walters opened the Breast screening Unit. On 30 June 2004 Selly Oak Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital received Foundation Trust status. In 2008 celebrations marked the 3000th liver transplant at the hospital.^[1]

In the week beginning 16 June 2010 some of the services from the Old Queen Elizabeth Hospital started to be transferred across to the New Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a second phase of transfers is planned for 17 & 18 November when around 300 inpatients will be transferred across the link bridge between the two hospitals. The final round of service moves is due to happen on 11 October 2011.^[4]

Origins of the hospital and the medical school

A variety of charitable hospitals opened in Birmingham between 1817, when the Orthopaedic Hospital opened, and 1881, when the Skin Hospital served its first patients. One of these, Queens Hospital, established in 1840 by a young local surgeon William Sands Cox, was predominantly for clinical instruction for the medical students of Birmingham. In 1884 these institutions, including Cox’s medical school, united as part of the University of Birmingham, on its new campus in Edgbaston. In 1922, Alderman W. A. Cadbury opposed the extension of the General Hospital in the city centre, and a new hospital in Edgbaston was proposed. Five years later an Executive Board for the building of this hospital, at an estimated cost of £1,000,000, was formed. Around 5/6ths of the money was to be dedicated to the hospital and one sixth to the University for the construction of the Medical School and in 1929 plans were drawn up for a 600-bed centre that would encourage clinical teaching of medicine, surgery, therapeutics, midwifery, diseases of women, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopaedics, dermatology, venereal disease and radiology. Britain was then in a period of financial crisis and there was controversy over the expense so in April 1930 an appeal to build the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was launched and by the following year donations exceeded £600,000 enabling construction to start in 1933. The building ultimately cost £1,029,057, which was £129,406 less than the money raised by donations.^[1]

References

External links

• University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust