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Description

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About the John Radcliffe Hospital
The John Radcliffe Hospital JR was opened in the 1970s and is Oxfordshires main accident and emergency site It is situated in Headington about three miles east of Oxford city centre It is the largest of the Trusts hospitals covering around 66 acres

It houses the Childrens Hospital and West Wing and the John Radcliffe Hospital Womens Centre It also provides acute medical and surgical services trauma intensive care and cardiothoracic services

It also houses many departments of Oxford University Medical School is home to the George Pickering Education Centre and base for most medical students who are trained throughout the Trust

The new emergency department at the John Radcliffe opened in 2004 was judged the best designed hospital building in the country in the Department of Healths national Annual Building Better Healthcare Awards 2004

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History

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In 1919 the Radcliffe Infirmary purchased the Manor House estate in Headington The Infirmary site was already overcrowded and they had been asked to provide sanatorium accommodation for tuberculosis sufferers They had applied to the Radcliffe Trustees for the use of some of the Observatory land but without success A public appeal for funds was launched and much of the purchase price came from the British Red Cross as part of the winding up of monies raised during the First World War it was proposed that the new hospital should serve as a war memorial

An early plan for the development of the Headington site

12 mens wards 34 womens wards 5 childrens wards 67 general wards 8 staff quarters and administration 9 childrens openair school 10 chapel 11 dining hall dispensary etc 12 boiler and laundry 13 workshops

Roads and drainage for a tuberculosis hospital were laid but financial difficulties intervened In the event the first hospital use of the site was when the Preliminary Training School of the newly established School of Nursing took up residence in the Manor House in 1922 The Ministry of Health finally approved the plans for the hospital for tuberculosis cases and the Osler Pavilion opened in 1927 named after Sir William Osler 1849 1919 Regius Professor of Medicine

The Infirmarys finances were still in a poor state In May 1925 having learned that the value of the Manor House estate might be affected by a proposal for an arterial road the Governors began to sell portions of the estate for building sites A further large portion of the site was sold in the early 1930s when the Nuffield benefactions made extensive building necessary at the Infirmary The present site of the John Radcliffe Hospital is only about half the size of the estate purchased in 1919

The same need for funds had led to the sale of the Infirmarys Sunnyside estate in Cowley which was used as a convalescent home A 30 bedded convalescent hospital was built in the Manor House grounds to compensate it was also called Sunnyside