King's Cross Hospital, often shortened to King's Cross is a hospital in Dundee,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It is managed by

NHS Tayside NHS Tayside is an NHS board which forms one of the fourteen regions of NHS Scotland. It provides healthcare services in Angus, the City of Dundee and Perth and Kinross. NHS Tayside is headquartered at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee; one of the la ...

History

King's Cross opened in November 1889 at a site in Clepington Road, Dundee. It was the city's first permanent fever hospital and was built by Dundee Town Council to treat patients with infectious diseases, including

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

and

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. Until the late 1860s, such patients had usually been admitted to

Dundee Royal Infirmary Dundee Royal Infirmary, often shortened to DRI, was a major teaching hospital in Dundee, Scotland. Until the opening of Ninewells Hospital in 1974, Dundee Royal Infirmary was Dundee's main hospital. It was closed in 1998, after 200 years of opera ...

, although a temporary fever hospital had been set up in a converted building in Lower Union Street during the 1832 cholera outbreak. As the need for isolation of patients with infectious diseases became more widely recognised, some temporary wooden pavilions were built on the outskirts of Lochee in 1867 and later on the site of what is now King's Cross for smallpox and typhus patients. Kings Cross, which initially had just two wards, took over their function. By 1913 King's Cross had seven wards supplemented by several a variety of ancillary buildings. These included King's Cross Hospital (West), built in 1893 as accommodation for cases of smallpox, with a small unit for cholera patients. These facilities were used intermittently until 1927 when the hospital had address an outbreak of variola minor. This outbreak was severe enough to require an additional ward to be constructed. At the creation of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

in 1948, King's Cross came under the management of the new Eastern Regional Hospital Board and was run by Dundee General Hospitals Board of Management. The Eastern Regional Hospital Board decided to centralise the management of infectious disease at King's Cross, resulting in the closure the former fever hospitals at

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

Forfar Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a pop ...

and Arbroath. In 1988 work began on a new out-patient department. Since the 1990s most of the hospital's services have been transferred to

Ninewells Hospital Ninewells Hospital is a large teaching hospital, based on the western edge of Dundee, Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland ...

. King's Cross now serves as the administrative headquarters of

. The hospital is also the site of NHS Tayside's Kings Cross Health and Community Care Centre, which offers several outpatient services including audiology, physiotherapy, dentistry and x-ray and is also the base for Dundee's "Out of Hours GP Service". The King's Cross Hospital archives are held by Archive Services at the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

as part of the NHS Tayside Archives. The same institution also holds the papers of Dr William Maxwell Jamieson OBE who worked at the hospital from 1939 until 1979 and became its Physician Superintendent in 1948. These papers include several records relating to the hospital and its history. A history of the hospital by Jamieson was produced in 1989 to mark its centenary.

Footnotes

External links

Unlocking the Medicine Chest – King's Cross HospitalUniversity of Dundee Archive Services catalogue entry for King's Cross Hospital
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1889 Government buildings completed in 1889 Hospitals in Dundee 1889 establishments in Scotland NHS Scotland hospitals Hospitals established in 1889