Leeds General Infirmary

Name :

Leeds General Infirmary

Address  :

Great George Street

Town  :

Leeds

State  :

West Yorkshire

Country  :

UK

Post Code:

LS1 3EX

Phone  :

0113 2432799

Web URL  :

Available

Description

About Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds General Infirmary is a specialist regional centre for a number of complex conditions along with providing many general acute hospital services

The Infirmary has one of the most diverse and architecturally contrasting sites of any hospital in the country

Its newest part is the Jubilee Building opened in 1998 which houses a range of services including an Accident and Emergency department intensive care facilities state of the art operating theatres and a hightech high dependency unit It also brings together some of the countrys leading experts in caring for patients with serious brain injuries and heart and lung problems

The Yorkshire Heart Centre provides services for children and adults with serious heart conditions and through the hospitals partnership with Leeds University has trained some of the worlds most renowned heart surgeons

The centralisation of neurology in 2005 from St Jamess University Hospital means the LGI also continues to lead the way in brain surgery

A helicopter deck on the Jubilee Building has seen thousands of flights by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance bringing sick patients from all across the Yorkshire region and beyond to be treated by experts at LGI

Work started in 2009 to centralise childrens hospital services at LGI as part of a major citywide reconfiguration scheme involving investment of up to pound35 million In April and May 2010 this saw the creation of the Leeds Childrens Hospital one of the largest facilities for sick children anywhere in the country

History

History
By far the oldest of the citys hospitals the history of Leeds General Infirmary dates back to June 1767 when 16 of the towns gentlemen met at the New Inn to discuss setting up an Infirmary for the Relief of the Sick and Hurt Poor within this Parish

The meeting resulted in an initial subscription of pound352 10s 6d and it was quickly resolved to set up a temporary Infirmary at the house of a Mr Andrew Wilson in Kirkgate

By December of that year the Board was already looking for a site for a purposebuilt Infirmary and settled on ground next to the Coloured Cloth Hall which is now the site of the Post office in City Square At that time it was almost in open country with no buildings to spoil the view down to the river

The foundation stone of the first General Infirmary was laid on 10 October 1768 by Edwin Lascelles later Baron Harewood one of the earliest benefactors The red brick stonefaced twostorey building opened in March 1771 with just 27 beds The male wards were named Kings Princes and Dukes and the female ones Queens Princesss and Duchess

Leeds though still just a town was rapidly expanding at the end of the 18th century and it was soon clear the new hospital would be too small An extra wing and further storey were added bringing the number of beds to over 100 by 1785 by which time the Infirmary was being described as quotone of the best hospitals in the kingdomquot

The continued expansion of the population together with the coming of the railways threatened the site of the Infirmary by the 1830s and in 1845 the Board were informed of plans for creating a Central Railway Station on the hospital site This was strenuously resisted and the station was eventually built in 1854 on its current site

However the demand for accommodation in the 150 beds was far outstripping supply with the population of Leeds reaching 207000 in 1861 with patients also coming to the Infirmary from elsewhere in the West Riding This led to a bold decision to completely rebuild the hospital on a new site on Great George Street then known as the Sunny Bank Estate

The great Victorian hospital which resulted still an important component of the Infirmary site today was designed by Mr later Sir George Gilbert Scott taking into account all the latest advice on sanitation and infection control much of it published by Miss Florence Nightingale who recommended the pavilion system of wards Scott had previously designed St Pancras Station in London to which the Infirmary bears a striking resemblance

The foundation stone was laid in 1864 and the building was opened in May 1868 by HRH The Prince of Wales later King Edward VII Strangely the new building did not take up its role immediately housing the National Exhibition of Works of Art until October of that year It took until May 1869 before the first patient a 10yearold boy from Dewsbury was admitted to the new Infirmary permitting the old building later demolished to close in a phased way

The Infirmary of 1868 had cost pound122000 and provided around 300 beds although once more it was quickly obvious that this was insufficient and the first of many additions and extensions was planned New developments such as electric lights and central heating greatly improved the comfort of both patients and staff and the Infirmary also made great strides in the training of both medical students and nurses New technology such as Xrays were in use by end of the 19th century and Listers views on antiseptics were enthusiastically taken up at the Infirmary with the result that the overall mortality rate fell despite a huge rise in the number of operations performed

In 1879 1885 and 1891 Scottish architect George Corson greatly enlarged the original scope of the Gilbert Scott building Other notable extensions included the Brotherton Wing built to house private patients which was hit by German bombs during an air raid shortly after in opened in 1940 but was fortunately undamaged

The Martin and Wellcome Wings both in stark modern styles opened in the 1960s and were followed by the Clarendon Wing in the 1980s bringing womens and childrens services together at the Infirmary for the first time