St Mary's Hospital is a hospital in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England. It is part of
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Acute Foundation Trust which operates 10 hospitals throughout Greater Manchester. It is the largest NHS trust in the United Kingdom, with an income of £2.2 billion and 28,479 staff in 2021– ...
. Founded in 1790, St Mary's provides a range of inter-related services specifically for women and children. In 1986, St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre was the first
sexual assault referral centre (SARC) to open in the UK.
History
The hospital was founded in 1790 by Dr
Charles White in a house in Old Bridge Street,
Salford
Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...
, as the "Lying-in Charity". Five years later in 1795 the charity became the Manchester Lying-in Hospital; it was accommodated however in the Bath Inn, Stanley Street, Salford.
Midwifery
Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...
training for women was provided from the beginning. The building was felt to be very suitable. The bar was used as the
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is an Early Modern English, archaic English term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in Brit ...
's shop. Inpatient accommodation was available for widows, deserted wives, and those whose homes were unsuitable. Eighty were admitted in 1791/92. In 1799/1800 there were 177 and 800 home patients. The charity maintained a list of midwives, who were paid two
shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...
and
sixpence for each delivery. In 1819 it moved to smaller premises at 18
King Street, Manchester, but moved back to Stanley Street in 1822.
White's collection of 300
pathological specimens was given to the hospital after his death in 1813. It was available for inspection by the public. In 1840 the charity moved to 2 South Parade, which cost £813. There was a disastrous fire there in 1847 which destroyed most of White's collection. In 1854 it changed its name to ''St Mary's Hospital and Dispensary for the Diseases peculiar to Women and also for the Diseases of Children under six years of age''.
From 1855 to 1903, it occupied a new building on
Quay Street which was erected at the expense of Dr
Thomas Radford. It cost £4,300 and had 80–90 beds, 25 or 30 of which were for children. Home visiting of sick women and children, and clinical teaching of students from
Owens College began at this time. Radford had joined the hospital in 1818 as a
man-midwife; from 1834 he was house surgeon extraordinary; from 1841 until his death in 1881 he was the consulting physician, and from 1874 also chairman of the board of management.
In 1904 the hospital was amalgamated with the Manchester Southern Hospital for Women and Children and two new hospitals were built. One was in
Whitworth Street West on the corner of
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...
, designed by
Alfred Waterhouse and built between 1899 and 1901. It had an octagonal tower and a circular ward block on three floors of diameter. There were three separate dining rooms – for doctors, for nurses, and for ancillary staff. The other hospital on Oxford Road in
Chorlton-on-Medlock
Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England.
Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city cen ...
opened in April 1911. The hospital also had a School of Nursing that certified midwives. In 1910 the first female house surgeon was appointed. In 1915 the city centre hospital provided maternity and outpatient services and had 56 maternity beds and 50 cots, with accommodation for medical students, midwives and pupil nurses. The suburban hospital provided
gynaecological and
paediatric services and contained 115 beds.
A clinic for
venereal disease
A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, or ...
was opened in 1919 and
antenatal clinics were instituted in 1923.
[ A formal co-operation arrangement was made with the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1939 which resulted in the gynaecological department being transferred from the infirmary to St Mary's and a shared nursing staff and training school instituted.
During the ]Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
most patients were moved, first to Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
and then to Collar House in Prestbury, Cheshire, well away from the city centre.[ Prestbury Hall and later Adlington Hall were also used.][ At the start of the ]NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
in 1948 it formed part of The United Manchester Hospitals.[
A new hospital was constructed on Hathersage Road between 1966 and 1970 at a cost of over £3 million. The wards were housed in a tower block with laboratories and the antenatal clinic in a podium. Each ward had 4 four-bedded rooms with nine single rooms, three nurseries, each with six cots, a day room and a utility room. Regional facilities – a special care baby unit, the medical genetics centre and ]in vitro fertilisation
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an ovum, egg is combined with spermatozoon, sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the Ovulation cycle, ovulatory process, then removing ...
services were developed.
In 1986 St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) was established; the first SARC to open in the UK. In June 1994, St Mary's Hospital was designated a Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
building. In 2003 Catherine White became clinical director of St Mary's SARC.
In 2009 paediatric (excluding neonatal) services from St Mary's Hospital were transferred to the newly re-built Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is a children's hospital in Oxford Road, Manchester, England. The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is managed by the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
History
A new hospital was required to ...
, which opened on 11 June 2009.
Services
Clinical
More than 1,200 staff, including doctors, nurses, midwives, clinical and non-clinical support staff work in St Mary's Hospital. A range of clinical and non-clinical support services are based at the site to support the work undertaken, including well established departments of radiology and physiotherapy. 9,267 babies were delivered in 2015/16.
Sexual Assault Referral Centre
St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) is a rape crisis centre, treating both men and women in the immediate aftermath of or any time after a rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
or sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...
, and provides psychological care in addition to forensic
Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...
services.
Library
The Radford Library was transferred from St Mary's Hospital to the Manchester Medical Society's library in 1927. It included early obstetrical and gynaecological literature collected by the surgeon Dr Thomas Radford and donated to the hospital by him, together with an endowment. Dr Radford also donated his obstetrical museum.[ Axon, William (1877) ''Handbook of the Public Libraries of Manchester and Salford''. Manchester: Abel Heywood and Son; pp. 136–38]
See also
* Healthcare in Greater Manchester
* List of hospitals in England
The following is a list of hospitals in England. For NHS trusts, see the list of NHS Trusts.
East Midlands
East of England
London North central
East
North west
South east
South west
North East County Durham
Northumberland
No ...
* Listed buildings in Manchester-M13
References
External links
Official site
{{authority control
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Hospital buildings completed in 1855
Grade II listed buildings in Manchester
Children's hospitals in the United Kingdom
Hospitals in Manchester
NHS hospitals in England
1790 establishments in England
Physicians of St Mary's Hospital, Manchester
Women in Manchester