| Royal Hospital Haslar | |
| Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust | |
|---|---|
| Royal Hospital Haslar | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Gosport, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public NHS |
| Hospital type | Military / NHS |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Minor injuries |
| Beds | Up to 350 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1753 |
| Closed | 2009 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.porthosp.nhs.uk Trust |
| Lists | Hospitals in England |
The Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire, England was one of several hospitals serving the Portsmouth Urban Area. The Royal Hospital Haslar officially closed as the last military hospital in the UK in 2007. In the summer of 2009 all services were relocated to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
The military personnel remaining at Haslar have now joined the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit (MDHU Portsmouth) at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Portsmouth.
Haslar had a number of specialist facilities including a decompression chamber and a zymotic isolation ward.
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The grounds are said to contain the bodies of at least 20,000 service personnel.
In 2001 Haslar was designated a Grade II listed historic park. Several of the buildings are listed.
The Royal Hospital Haslar began as a Royal Navy hospital in 1753. It has a long and distinguished history in the medical care of service personnel in peacetime and in war.
The building was designed by Theodore Jacobsen and built between 1746-61.
Haslar was the biggest hospital and the largest brick building in England when it was built. The hospital included an asylum for sailors with psychiatric disorders and an early superintending psychiatrist was the phrenologist, Dr James Scott (1785–1859), a member of the influential Edinburgh Phrenological Society. James Lind at Haslar Hospital 1758-1774 played a large part in discovering a cure for scurvy, not least through his pioneering use of a double blind trial of vitamin C supplements (limes).
In 1902 the hospital became known as the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar (abbreviated to RNH Haslar).
In the 1940s, RNH Haslar set up the country's first blood bank to treat wounded soldiers from the Second World War.
In 1966 the remit of the hospital expanded to serve all three services - the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
In 1996 the hospital again became known as the Royal Hospital Haslar.
In 2001 the provision of acute healthcare within Royal Hospital Haslar was transferred from the Defence Secondary Care Agency to the NHS Trust. The Royal Hospital was the last MOD-owned acute hospital in the UK. The change from military control to the NHS, and the complete closure of the hospital have been the subject of considerable local controversy.
In 2009 the hospital formally closed and the site is due to be redeveloped.
On 17 May 2010 an investigation of the hospital's burial ground, by archaeologists from Cranfield Forensic Institute, was featured on Channel 4's Time Team. It was estimated that up to 7,785 individuals had been buried there. From 1758 the chief surgeon was James Lind who previously, though unwittingly, had discovered the cure for scurvy. Lind's pioneering work on infection control considerably improved mortality rates. Archaeological investigations showed evidence of scurvy and revealled that limb amputations had been commonplace.
The last military-run ward was ward E5, a planned orthopaedic surgery ward. The ward encompassed 21 beds in small 'rooms', and was run by the military staff with some NHS colleagues; the ward manager was a serving military officer. The ward was served by both military and NHS doctors; the ancillary staff were non-military.
The ward closed in 2009 along with the rest of the site and military staff moved to new posts within MDHU Portsmouth or other units around the country.
To mark the handover of control to the civilian NHS trust, the military medical staff marched out of RH Haslar in 2007, exercising the unit's rights of the freedom of Gosport.[1]
The staff consisted of Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Army led by a band of the Royal Marines. The Gosport citizens are said to deeply saddened by the closure of Haslar and there are campaigns to keep the hospital open. Gosport politicians cite that the UK is the only country in the Western world not to have a dedicated Military hospital, run by and for its military staff - who understand the needs and ideology of the service person. At present, most casualties from conflicts return to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.