The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply ‘The Western General’) is a health facility at Craigleith, Edinburgh,

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 Lothian NHS Lothian is one of the 14 regions of NHS Scotland. It provides healthcare services in the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian areas. Its headquarters are at Waverley Gate, Edinburgh Services It is responsible for the ...

History

The hospital was designed by Peddie and Kinnear and opened as the St. Cuthberts and Canongate Poorhouse in 1868, principally as a workhouse but also having some hospital functions. It was later renamed Craigleith Poorhouse. In 1915, during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the building was requisitioned by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

to create the 2nd Scottish General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. After returning to poorhouse use in 1920 it was converted fully to hospital use in 1927. A nurses' home was added in 1935 and a pathology block was completed in 1939. 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 a new library was completed in 1979. The first Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre opened on the Western General Hospital site in 1996. In June 2012 the Medicine for the Elderly services were transferred from the Royal Victoria Hospital to a new purpose-built facility known as the Royal Victoria Building at the Western General Hospital. A facility to treat young people with cancer aged 16 to 24 was opened in the Western General Hospital in December 2013.

Buildings

Buildings include: *Nuffield Transplant Unit by

Peter Womersley Peter Womersley (24 June 1923 – 1993) was a British architect, best known for his work in the modernist style. He lived in the Scottish Borders, where a number of his buildings are located, although he worked on projects throughout the UK. Inf ...

, 1955 – distinctive modernist architecture and pedestrian bridge over the south access road *A range of functional buildings from the 1950s (including surgical theatres) by

Basil Spence Sir Basil Urwin Spence, (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Moderni ...

*Nurses Home by City Architect ( Ebenezer MacRae) 1935 *Pathology Department by City Architect ( Ebenezer MacRae) 1939 *Royal Victoria Building. The RVB was built primarily as a replacement for the Royal Victoria Hospital, a Medicine of the Older Adult assessment and rehabilitation Unit.

Services

The hospital has over 700 beds including day beds. Although the Western no longer has an

Accident and Emergency An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pa ...

department, a nurse-led minor injuries unit has been operating on the site since 1994. The hospital served as a base for the

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

and

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and pe ...

centre for south east Scotland ("Department of Clinical

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

s") until the department moved to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at Little France in 2020. There is a major national

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

research and treatment centre at the hospital which was refurbished in 2007.

References

External links

*
Western General Hospital
Official site {{authority control NHS Scotland hospitals Teaching hospitals in Scotland Hospitals in Edinburgh 1868 establishments in Scotland Hospitals established in 1868 University of Edinburgh NHS Lothian