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Description

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About Guys and St Thomas
Welcome to the about us section of our website Here you can find information about Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust as an organisation

Our services
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in the country with over 1 million patient contacts every year We provide a full range of hospital and community services for residents in Lambeth Southwark and Lewisham

Our people
We are one of the largest employers locally with around 12000 staff We work hard to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of the communities we serve

Our success depends on the commitment and dedication of our staff We aim to recruit and retain the best staff possible

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History

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Long before Guys and St Thomas were brought together as a single NHS Hospital Trust in April 1993 the two hospitals had shared centuries of working together

St Thomas
St Thomas was founded with 40 beds for the poor including the quotsick and the merely needyquot in the 12th century as the infirmary of the Augustinian priory It was run by the 11 brothers and sisters of the monastery

The original hospital was located near todays Guys Hospital and was refounded after a fire in 1212 on the east side of Borough High Street The hospital grew in size and reputation and in 1871 following the building of the railway relocated to its present site south of Westminster Bridge

Guys
Thomas Guy MP bible seller and governor of St Thomas founded Guys in 1721 as a hospital for quotincurablesquot As Guys expanded from its original 60 beds into a major hospital it retained close links with St Thomas particularly through the joint medical school that the hospitals shared

The schools separated in 1825 and were reunited as the United Medical and Dental Schools in 1982 Guys remains on its original site south of London Bridge

Charitable donations
The roots of the Charity go back many years to the very first donations to the hospitals Edwards VI reestablished St Thomas Hospital in 1553 after it had been closed by his father because of its religious associations during the reformation

Two centuries later in 1721 Thomas Guy a local bible seller MP and governor of St Thomas Hospital funded a hospital for the incurably ill and hopelessly insane in his name Sadly he died in 1724 before the hospital was complete but he left a third of his estate to ensure that the hospital opened

Daniel Defoe author of Robinson Crusoe wrote that the new hospital was quotthe charitable gift and single endowment of one person and perhaps the greatest of its kindthat ever was founded in this nation by one person whether private or publick not excepting the kings themselvesquot

The spirit of giving continues today with many patients and their families as well as the wider community and individuals continuing to raise funds make donations or leaving legacies to support the hospitals

When the NHS was created in 1948 two separate organisations called the Special Trustees managed the donations for the two hospitals When the two hospitals merged in 1993 the two charitable funds came together to form Guys and St Thomas Charitable Foundation It became known as Guys and St Thomas Charity in 2005 when the Trust received Foundation Trust status to avoid any confusion caused by the use of Foundation

To find out more about the Charitys work or how you can make a donation please visit wwwgsttcharityorguk