Western Eye Hospital is an

ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a med ...

hospital in west

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is managed by the

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is an NHS trust based in London, England. It is one of the largest NHS trusts in England and together with Imperial College London forms an academic health science centre. The trust was formed in October 20 ...

History

The hospital was founded by Henry Obre and John Woolcott, both surgeons, at St John's Place in Lisson Grove as the St Marylebone Eye and Ear Institution in 1856. It moved to a larger facilities in Marylebone Road in 1860 and an out-patients department was opened by the Marquess of Ripon in 1904. After the existing facility at Marylebone Road became very dilapidated, a new purpose-built facility was built on the same site and opened in March 1930. It joined 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 and was renamed the Western Eye Hospital in 1993.

Facilities

The hospital operates a daily emergency department, for ambulance and walk-in cases. It features a minor

surgical theatre An operating theater (also known as an operating room (OR), operating suite, or operation suite) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment. Historically, the term "operating theater" refe ...

, a

triage In medicine, triage () is a practice invoked when acute care cannot be provided for lack of resources. The process rations care towards those who are most in need of immediate care, and who benefit most from it. More generally it refers to pri ...

system and two ophthalmic operating theatres. It treats a wide range of eye conditions from

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye re ...

to wet age-related

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

(AMD), a major cause of blindness.

Alumni

* Bashar al-Assad -

President of Syria The president of Syria, officially the president of the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: رئيس سوريا) is the head of state of the Syrian Arab Republic. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to ...

(attended postgraduate studies at the Western Eye Hospital, specializing in vitreoretinal ophthalmology). There al-Assad’s consultant supervisor remarked “He was an extremely kind person and a warm personality" while a nurse went on the record stating he was “calm at the operating table and had a wonderful manner with the patients . . . He spoke with every patient just before surgery to reassure them all would be well.”

References

Sources

External links