| Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh | |
|---|---|
 Mackenzie Medical Centre | |
 | |
  Shown in Edinburgh | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland. |
| Coordinates | 55°56′44″N3°11′01″W / 55.9456°N 3.1836°W Coordinates: 55°56′44″N3°11′01″W / 55.9456°N 3.1836°W |
| History | |
| Opened | 1776 |
| Closed | 1963 |
| Links | |
| Other links | List of hospitals in Scotland |
The Public Dispensary of Edinburgh was the first free-of-charge hospital in Scotland. [1]
Edinburgh has a history of providing free medical care to the poor. In first meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in 1681, the Fellows drew up a scheme to provide free medical care for the poor of Edinburgh. [2] By the eighteenth century, Edinburgh remained overcrowded, disease-ridden, and overflowing with the poor. In 1705, the Fellows at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh unanimously agreed to continue providing medical aid for the poor by two Fellows per year at their new premises in Fountain Close. This "Dispensary" service continued at Fountain Close until 1729 when it transferred to the new "Physicians’ Hospital or Infirmary for the Sick and Poor." [3]
A Dispensary for the Infant Poor had already been established in London in 1769, although it did not survive, and the idea expanded. By 1776, Dispensaries had been established across England. Edinburgh's public dispensary was founded in 1776 by Andrew Duncan and provided the impoverished in the city with free medical advice. It opened in West Richmond Street in 1783. [4] The Dispensary was established and financed as a public charity from the beginning and was an extension of Duncan's teaching program. Patients attending the Dispensary received free medicines and advice and in return agreed to be demonstrations in Duncan's classes. [3]
In June 1815, William Pulteney Alison and other Fellows of the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh founded another public dispensary in Edinburgh's New Town. Alison felt a second dispensary was justified to meet the demands of the city's poor. The Royal Dispensary was only open two days a week and had no established system for home visiting. [3] It received a royal charter on 13 January 1818, becoming the Royal Public Dispensary of Edinburgh. [4]
The trustees of the Royal Dispensary donated their building at West Richmond Street and its remaining funds to the University of Edinburgh in 1963. The University refurbished the building and renamed it the Mackenzie Medical Centre, after Sir James Mackenzie, a general practitioner. [4] The Royal Dispensary also endowed the first Chair of General Practice in the world, at the University of Edinburgh, to which Richard Scott was appointed later that year. [4]
John Abercrombie was a Scottish physician, author, philosopher and philanthropist. His Edinburgh practice became one of the most successful medical practices in Scotland. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary says of him that after James Gregory's death, he was "recognized as the first consulting physician in Scotland". As surgeon to The Royal Public Dispensary and the New Town Dispensary he provided free medical care for the poor of the town and taught medical students and apprentices. He published extensively on medical topics and latterly on metaphysics morality and religion. A devout Christian he gave financial support to missionary work. Abercrombie was awarded the honorary degree of MD from the University of Oxford, was elected Rector of Marischal College and University, Aberdeen and appointed Physician to the King in Scotland.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1518, the RCP is the oldest medical college in England. It set the first international standard in the classification of diseases, and its library contains medical texts of great historical interest. The college is sometimes referred to as the Royal College of Physicians of London to differentiate it from other similarly named bodies.
William Pulteney AlisonFRSE FRCPE FSA was a Scottish physician, social reformer and philanthropist. He was a distinguished professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He served as president of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh (1833), president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1836–38), and vice-president of the British Medical Association, convening its meeting in Edinburgh in 1858.
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located on Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, within the Surgeons' Hall, designed by William Henry Playfair, and adjoining buildings. The main campus includes a skills laboratory, the Surgeons' Hall Museums, a medical and surgical library, and a hotel. A second office was opened in Birmingham (UK) in 2014 and an international office opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2018.
UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical education research unit and an education consultancy unit. It is internationally renowned and is currently ranked 8th in the world by the QS World University Rankings 2020.
A royal college in some Commonwealth countries is technically a college which has received royal patronage and permission to use the prefix royal. Permission is usually granted through a royal charter. The charter normally confers a constitution with perpetual succession and the right to sue or be sued independently of the members. The charter also usually provide for rights of recourse to the Queen in Council. Although incorporation is now cheaply and easily obtainable by registration, the distinction of a royal charter means that such charters are still sought by and granted to institutions considered to be in the public interest, typically learned professional societies.
The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Morningside Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire. The hospital moved to a new 900 bed site in 2003 in Little France. It is the site of clinical medicine teaching as well as a teaching hospital for the University of Edinburgh Medical School. In 1960, the first successful kidney transplant performed in the UK was at this hospital. In 1964, the world's first coronary care unit was established at the hospital. It is the only site for liver, pancreas and pancreatic islet cell transplantation and one of two sites for kidney transplantation in Scotland. In 2012 the Emergency Department had 113,000 patient attendances, the highest number in Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.
A public dispensary, charitable dispensary or free dispensary gives advice and medicines free-of-charge, or for a small charge.
James Gregory FRSE FRCPE was a Scottish physician and classicist.
Andrew Duncan, the elder FRSE FRCPE FSA (Scot) was a British physician and professor at the University of Edinburgh. He was joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Richard Poole (1783–1871) was a Scottish physician, psychiatrist, and phrenologist.
Nathaniel Hulme, FRS was a British physician.
The Evening Dispensary for Working Women and Girls was an innovative American health care service at the turn of the twentieth century. As a public dispensary, it provided "outpatient medical treatment and advice to patients, in contrast to the inpatient service provided by hospitals". It offered medical treatment for poor women, educated the public on health matters, and provided female medical students with an opportunity to learn and gain experience.
Dr John Thomson FRS FRSE PRCPE (1765–1846) was a Scottish surgeon and physician, reputed in his time "the most learned physician in Scotland". He was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1834 to 1836.
Richard Scott, also known as Dick Scott, was a Scottish medical doctor who was the first professor of general practice. He worked as an academic general practitioner (GP) in Edinburgh. He was involved with setting up the first ever university general practice in 1948, developed the University of Edinburgh's general practice teaching unit and in 1963 was appointed to the first academic chair in general practice.
Rose v Royal College of Physicians, also known as The Rose Case, was a 1703 British landmark court case between the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and William Rose, a Liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries. Rose had treated a John Seale, who complained about his treatment to the RCP, who brought a successful court action against Rose in 1703. The Society of Apothecaries and Rose successfully appealed against this judgement. However, this did not change medical practice but merely legitimised what apothecaries were doing already and confirmed the "status quo". It did, nevertheless, symbolize the decline in the College's growing legal monopoly over who practises medicine. The case was ultimately seen as not one between a College and one individual, but one between one powerful College against one powerful Society.
Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education which is conducted outwith a university. In the early 16th century it was under the auspices of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) and continued after the Faculty of Medicine was established by the University of Edinburgh in 1726. Throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries the demand for extramural medical teaching increased as Edinburgh's reputation as a centre for medical education grew. Instruction was carried out by individual teachers, by groups of teachers and, by the end of the 19th century, by private medical schools in the city. Together these comprised the Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine. From 1896 many of the schools were incorporated into the Medical School of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh under the aegis of the RCSEd and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) and based at Surgeons' Hall. Extramural undergraduate medical education in Edinburgh stopped in 1948 with the closure of the Royal Colleges' Medical School following the Goodenough Report which recommended that all undergraduate medical education in the UK should be carried oy by universities.
A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Many of these hospitals conduct medical research, as well as provide care to the poor and uninsured. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located with medical schools.
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