| Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases | |
| Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Trust | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Bath, Somerset, England, United Kingdom |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public NHS |
| Hospital type | Specialist |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | No Accident & Emergency |
| Speciality | Rheumatology |
| History | |
| Founded | 1742 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.rnhrd.nhs.uk/revisit_index.htm |
| Lists | Hospitals in England |
The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS hospital trust of the National Health Service in England. It is a small, specialist Trust in the centre of Bath.
It was founded in 1738 as The Mineral Water Hospital, and is still known locally as "The Min"; it is also signed locally as the RNHRD. Then, it provided care for the impoverished sick who were attracted to Bath because of the supposed healing properties of the mineral water from the spa. The original building was designed by John Wood the Elder and built with Bath stone donated by Ralph Allen. It was later enlarged, firstly in 1793 by the addition of an attic storey and later in 1860 by a second building erected on the west side of the earlier edifice. It is a Grade II listed building.[1] There is a fine pediment, in Bath stone, on the 1860 building depicting the parable of the good Samaritan. The hospital possesses a number of interesting oil paintings, in particular a picture of Dr Oliver and Mr Peirce examining three patients in 1741.[2]
In 1978 the hospital was the third from last of the English hydropathic hospitals to cease offering hydropathy.
In 1993, it became an NHS Foundation Trust, specialising in Rheumatic Disease and Rehabilitation, which received a 3 star rating in 2005.
The Hospital provides local Rheumatology services, and also has specialist clinics and services which attract referrals from a national population. Specialist rheumatology clinics include connective tissue disease, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoporosis, and Pagets Disease. The hospital has a large brain injury rehabilitation service with separate units for adults, adolescents and children. It also houses the Bath Centre for Pain Services, which provides psychologically focused treatment for adults, young people and children with chronic pain and is the base for both adult and paediatric services for chronic fatigue syndrome; it hosts the largest regional clinical paediatric team for chronic fatigue syndrome in the UK.