The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (the RNTNEH) was a health facility on Gray's Inn Road in London. It closed in October 2019 when services transferred to the new Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals on Huntley Street, London, WC1E 6DG. The Huntley Street hospital continues to provide specialist ENT, sleeps and allergy services and is part of

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises University College Hospital, University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, the UCH Macmillan Cancer ...

. The hospital's

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

is ''Audient surdi mutique loquentur'' (the deaf shall hear and the mute shall speak).

History

The hospital was founded in 1874 by Lennox Browne, Llewellyn Thomas, Alfred Hutton, George Wallis and Ernest Turner. The hospital initially opened in Manchester Street (now Argyle Street), but demand for its services was such that new premises were acquired on

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...

: the foundation stone was laid by

Adelina Patti Adelina Patti (19 February 184327 September 1919) was an Italian 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851, and gave her la ...

, a leading singer, in 1875. The new facility opened, as the Central London Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, in 1877. A new wing was opened by

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, (Louisa Caroline Alberta; 18 March 1848 – 3 December 1939) was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In her public life, she was a strong proponent of the arts and highe ...

in 1906. She also laid the foundation stone for the Princess Louise Wing which was built between 1928 and 1929. In January 1942 the hospital was amalgamated with the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat in

Golden Square Golden Square, in Soho, the City of Westminster, London, is a mainly hardscaped garden square planted with a few mature trees and raised borders in Central London flanked by classical office buildings. Its four approach ways are north and sou ...

to form The Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. It then 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. In April 1991 the

Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (formerly the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, as well as clinics ru ...

, comprising the Royal Free Hospital and the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, became one of the first

NHS trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

s established under the provisions of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990. In April 2012,

took over management of the hospital from the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. In October 2019 UCLH opened a new hospital in Huntley Street to house the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and the Eastman Dental Hospital and many departments moved there. Following the COVID-19 Pandemic the remaining wards, operating theatre and sleep unit were shut down earlier than planned and moved to the new hospital and UCLH. The original site at 330 Gray's Inn Road is now closed. The Ear Institute remains in place for research and teaching. There are two notable pieces of art in the entrance: on the left there is a plaque commemorating the Royal Ear Hospital as a memorial to the parents of Geoffrey Duveen, by Felix Joubert, and on the right there is a carving of St. Blaise, by Cecil Thomas.

Services

The following services are currently provided at the new Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals on Huntley Street: *

allergy Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derm ...

and medical rhinology * audiological medicine and neuro-otology *

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech unde ...

s *ear, nose and throat services *hearing therapy * rhinology *

rhinoplasty Rhinoplasty ( grc, ῥίς, rhī́s, nose + grc, πλάσσειν, plássein, to shape), commonly called nose job, medically called nasal reconstruction is a plastic surgery procedure for altering and reconstructing the nose. There are two typ ...

and facial

plastic surgery Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes cranio ...

snoring Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. The sound may be soft or loud and unpleasant. Snoring during sleep may be a sign, or first alarm, of ob ...

and

sleep disorders A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests ...

* speech and language therapy

Research

Together with the

UCL Ear Institute The UCL Ear Institute is an academic department of the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) located in Gray's Inn Road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, England, next to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear H ...

, the hospital constitutes the largest centre for audiological research in Europe.

Notable people

* Professor Ronald Hinchcliffe was a consultant at the hospital in the 1960s, where he established a vestibular research laboratory. * Edith Whetnall led the way in treating the deaf.John Ballantyne, 'Whetnall , Edith Aileen Maude (1910–1965)',

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 30 Nov 2015
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References

External links