City Hospital, Birmingham

For the former City Hospital, Little Bromwich, see Heartlands Hospital.

City Hospital
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
Mosaic and main entrance block, August 2021
Shown in West Midlands
Geography
Location	Winson Green, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	52°29′17″N1°55′53″W / 52.48806°N 1.93139°W / 52.48806; -1.93139
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Type	District General
Affiliated university	University of Birmingham Aston University Birmingham City University
Services
Emergency department	No Accident & Emergency
History
Opened	1887 (1887)
Links
Website	www.swbh.nhs.uk
Lists	Hospitals in England

City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road Hospital, and still commonly referred to as such) was a major hospital located in Birmingham, England, operated by the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. It provided an extensive range of general and specialist hospital services. It is located in the Winson Green area of the west of the city.

It was replaced by the delayed Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, ^[1] with the Treatment Centre and separate eye hospital, the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, remaining on the Dudley Road campus, the rest of which will be redeveloped for housing. ^{[2] [3]}

History

The hospital was first built in 1889 as an extension to the Birmingham Union Workhouse (whose entrance building, though derelict, survived until September 2017). ^[4] It originally comprised a single corridor stretching for a quarter of a mile with nine Nightingale ward blocks radiating from it along its length. The original design was by an architect called W. H. Ward and was designed around a configuration recommended by Florence Nightingale. ^[5] The first matron was Anne Campbell Gibson, still commemorated with the Ann Gibson meeting rooms in the City Hospital.

It was originally known as the Birmingham Union Infirmary, later Dudley Road Infirmary, before becoming Dudley Road Hospital. One of its notable surgeons, Hamilton Bailey, took the photos for the first edition of his famous textbook while at Dudley Road. ^[6]

The hospital's 'Birmingham Treatment Centre', in September 2013

The Birmingham Treatment Centre opened on the City Hospital site in November 2005. This diagnosis and treatment centre replaces the existing Outpatient Department. ^[7]

The hospital's last inpatients were transferred to Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in 11 November 2024 the same day the hospital's accident and emergency unit was closed. ^[3]

Notable staff

• Anne Campbell Gibson (1849–1926) matron of the Birmingham Union Infirmary from 1888 to 1912 and notable for her contributions to workhouse nursing and pioneering the establishment of infirmaries separate from workhouses and staffed with trained nurses. ^[8]
• Marion Caroline Thomas RRC ^[9] (1877– ), Matron from 1912 until 1925. ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} Thomas trained at The London Hospital under Eva Luckes between 1900 and 1902. ^{[10] [14]} After her training she was employed as a Holiday Sister and Matron's Ward Assistant, before becoming matron of the Rutson Hospital in 1910. ^[15] During the First World War she was also appointed Territorial Force Nursing Service Matron in charge of the military hospital based at the workhouse infirmary: 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, between April 1915 and 1919. ^[16] Thomas resigned because of ill health in 1925. ^{[16] [13]}

See also

• List of hospitals in England

References

1. "At last! Building work on Midland Metropolitan Hospital can begin again". Birmingham Mail. 16 August 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
2. "Midland Metropolitan University Hospital". Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
3. "Final patients moved out of historic city hospital". BBC News. 11 November 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
4. "Birmingham Union Workhouse and Infirmary". Pastscape. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
5. "Winson Green". William Dargue. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
6. McN., L. (1965). "Hamilton Bailey, (1894-1961)". British Journal of Surgery. 52 (4): 241–5. doi:10.1002/bjs.1800520403. PMID   14271082.
7. "Birmingham facility marks design step change". Health Estate Journal. February 2006. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
8. Wildman, Stuart (13 February 2020), "Gibson, Anne Campbell (1849–1926), nurse and poor law reformer" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.369149, ISBN   978-0-19-861412-8 , retrieved 17 October 2024
9. "Honours for Nurses". The British Journal of Nursing : 379. 20 December 1919 – via www.rcn.org.
10. Rogers, Sarah (2022). 'A Maker of Matrons'? A study of Eva Lückes's influence on a generation of nurse leaders:1880–1919' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, April 2022)
11. "Notes on News from the Nursing World: The New Matron of Birmingham Infirmary". The Nursing Mirror . 14 (366): n.p. 30 March 1912 – via www.rcn.org.
12. "The Hospital World". The Nursing Record . 53 (1372): 59–60. 18 July 1914 – via www.rcn.org.
13. "Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham". Nursing Times . 21 (1038): 266. 21 March 1925 – via www.rcn.org.
14. Marion Caroline Thomas, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/7, 197; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
15. Marion Caroline Thomas, Register of Sisters and Nurses; RLHLH/N/4/1, 261; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
16. Marion Thomas, British Army Nurses’ Service Records 1914–1918; WO399/14968; The National Archives, Kew