Plan of the original ward pavilions at Ruchill Hospital from the Glasgow Office of Public Works, 1900A sanitary washhouse and disinfection station was constructed on Bilsland Drive in 1893 and was later converted into social housing in 1992
In 1891 when the boundaries of Glasgow were extended to include Ruchill and Maryhill, the Glasgow Corporation purchased 53 acres (21ha) of land there for a public park, golf course and 36 acres (15ha) for the city's second fever hospital,[1] to create the additional capacity beyond that already provided at Belvidere Hospital in Parkhead.[2]
Ruchill Hospital was designed by the City Engineer, Alexander B. McDonald in a Neo Jacobean style, largely using red brick dressed with red sandstone ashlar.[3] McDonald was responsible for a number of civic projects in the city from 1890 to 1914, the most notable being the People's Palace.[4]
Work started on Ruchill Hospital on 16 April 1895, and the foundation stone was laid by Lady Bell, the wife of Sir James Bell, Lord Provost of Glasgow, on 29 August 1895. The hospital cost £250,000 and was designed to deal specifically with infectious diseases, such as smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, poliomyelitis and measles, which were widespread at the time.[1] It was opened by Princess Christian on 13 June 1900.[5]
It had an initial capacity of 440 beds, spread across sixteen isolatedNightingale ward pavilions, twelve of which were large, each containing beds for 30 patients, and four smaller ones accommodating 20 patients each.[6] The only entrance was via a gatehouse on Bilsland Drive. Other buildings included a kitchen and stores block, an administration block, a clearing house (to direct patients to appropriate treatment locations), a mortuary and laboratory block, a stable block, a sanitary wash house and disinfecting station, a laundry and a three-storey nurses home as well as ten staff villas and semi-detached cottages along Bilsland Drive. The centrepiece however was its 165ft (50m)water tower, required due to the height of the site.[7]
In the early 20th century, an additional 270 beds were provided with the construction of three ward pavilions and a tuberculosis pavilion.[8]
By the time of its absorption into the National Health Service in 1948 Ruchill Hospital had 1,000 beds.[8] The first nude mice were discovered by Dr. Norman R. Grist at the newly-established Brownlee virology laboratory in the hospital in 1962.[9] With the discovery of vaccinations and improved public health, cases of diseases like tuberculosis declined, and the number of in-patients had reduced to 586 by 1975.[8]
Jessie McTavish, a nurse, was convicted of murdering a patient with insulin at the hospital in 1974.[10]
Ruchill Hospital site in 2014.
In addition to treating other sexually transmitted diseases, Ruchill Hospital was also designated the primary Glasgow hospital dealing with cases of HIV, the cause of AIDS, after the emergence of this virus in the early 1980s, and also took patients from elsewhere in the West of Scotland. The hospital opened HIV counselling clinics in 1986 and a needle exchange programme in 1987, and provided laboratory services related to HIV,[11] as well as later operating the HAVEN, a drop-in centre for people with HIV run by AIDS support organisation PHACE West.[12] In addition, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, or SCIEH, the progenitor of today's Health Protection Scotland was based at the hospital.[13]
After the opening of the Brownlee Centre for Infectious and Communicable Diseases at Gartnavel General Hospital, Ruchill Hospital closed in 1998.[1]
The site was sold to Scottish Enterprise in July 1999.[1] Plans were subsequently submitted by Scottish Enterprise in April 2010 to demolish all the remaining listed buildings, with the exception of the red-brick category A-listed water tower.[7] This was rejected by Glasgow City Council's planning committee in April 2011. Scottish Enterprise appealed the decision and secured consent to proceed with the demolition in December 2012. Following the demolition of the other buildings, the hospital's red-brick water tower remains a particularly prominent local landmark.[3]
In October 2020, Bellway submitted an application to Glasgow City Council for planning consent for a housing development at the former hospital; the proposal attracted objections from the former MP Paul Sweeney among others, on the basis that the style of the development was inappropriate in the context of the historic importance of the location.[14] A revised plan for housing on the site was approved by the city's planning committee in October 2021, with a uniform red brick design code and incorporation of heritage elements from the former hospital, as well as reuse of the former water tower.[15]
Related Research Articles
Parkhead is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necropolis cemetery was laid out in the area in 1847 beside the Gallowgate.
Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hospitals in the United States to use a standard fee schedule and favor private or semi-private rooms over large wards. It was the first hospital in the country to form a closed, salaried medical staff. As founder Henry Ford viewed tobacco as being unhealthy, the hospital was one of the first in the United States to institute a total ban on smoking. Henry Ford Hospital is staffed by the Henry Ford Medical Group, one of the nation's largest and oldest group practices with 1,200 physicians in more than 40 specialties.
After the Bolivarian Revolution, extensive inoculation programs and the availability of low- or no-cost health care provided by the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security made Venezuela's health care infrastructure one of the more advanced in Latin America.
University Hospital Hairmyres is a district general hospital in the Hairmyres neighbourhood of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The hospital serves one of the largest elderly populations in Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lanarkshire.
Stobhill Hospital is an Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Hospital, located in Springburn in the north of Glasgow, Scotland. It serves the population of North Glasgow and part of East Dunbartonshire. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney is a leading tertiary referral hospital and research facility located in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Though funded and integrated into the New South Wales state public health system, it is operated by St Vincent's Health Australia. It is affiliated with the University of Tasmania College of Health and Medicine and the University of New South Wales Medical School.
Gartnavel General Hospital is a teaching hospital in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. The hospital is located next to the Great Western Road, between Hyndland, Anniesland and Kelvindale. Hyndland railway station is adjacent to the hospital. The name Gartnavel is derived from the Gaelic GartUbhal (apple) – i.e. "a field of apple trees". It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York d/b/a as Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers was a healthcare system, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to as "St. Vincent's". St. Vincent's was founded in 1849 and was a major teaching hospital in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It closed on April 30, 2010, under circumstances that triggered an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney. Demolition began at the end of 2012 and was completed in early 2013. Other hospital buildings are being converted into luxury condos and a new luxury building, Greenwich Lane, has replaced the St. Vincent's building.
Life expectancy in Jordan was 74 years in 2013. 99% of Jordan's population have access to clean water and sanitation despite it being one of the world's poorest in water resources. There were 203 physicians per 100,000 people in the years 2000–2004, a proportion comparable to many developed countries and higher than most of the developing world.
Life expectancy has risen by two years for males and females in Vietnam between 2000 and 2012. This is half of the average rise in life expectancy for other parts of the world during the same time period.
Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, originally known as Queens Memorial Infectious Diseases Hospital, operated from 1904 to its closure in 1996. Perched high on the banks of the Yarra River at Yarra Bend in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fairfield, it developed an international reputation for the research and treatment of infectious diseases. When it closed, it was the last specific infectious diseases hospital in Australia.
Central State Hospital, originally known as the Central Lunatic Asylum, is a psychiatric hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, United States. It was the first institution in the country for "colored persons of unsound mind".
The Infectious Diseases Hospital “Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz" is a public metropolitan-area hospital serving Buenos Aires, Argentina and the surrounding area since 1882. As the name implies, the hospital specializes in infectious diseases. The address for the hospital is Uspallata 2272 and is located in the neighborhood of Parque Patricios in Buenos Aires.
The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) is an academic medical partnership between North American academic health centers led by the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Moi University School of Medicine, centered in Eldoret, Kenya. It is the first food-and-drug treatment model to be established in Africa. The program seeks to provide comprehensive HIV care services through its three-way mission: care, research, and training; It currently serves 3.5 million people, with over 60 urban and rural clinics in Western Kenya.
Empilisweni District Hospital is a Provincial government funded hospital for the Senqu Local Municipality area in Sterkspruit, Eastern Cape in South Africa. Empilisweni is a level 1 hospital situated near the Lesotho and Free State borders with 93 usable beds. It forms a cluster with Umlamli Hospital, Lady Grey and Cloete Joubert Hospitals.
Brisbane General Hospital Precinct is a heritage-listed hospital precinct at 40 Bowen Bridge Road, Herston, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1875 to 1941. It includes six historic buildings associated with the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and the former Royal Children's Hospital, as well as aspects of their grounds and landscaping. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 March 2003. A number of buildings in the precinct, in particular the Lady Lamington Nurses Home, will be redeveloped as part of the Herston Quarter development.
Herman Kiefer Hospital was a city-owned hospital in Detroit Michigan, from 1911 to 2013. It was founded to serve as a public health hospital; to combat rampant infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, mumps, measles, and other diseases. It was named after Herman Kiefer, a prominent local physician known for treating the poor.
Monsall Hospital was a hospital in North Manchester, England.
The Edinburgh City Hospital was a hospital in Colinton, Edinburgh, opened in 1903 for the treatment of infectious diseases. As the pattern of infectious disease changed, the need for in-patients facilities to treat them diminished. While still remaining the regional centre for infectious disease, in the latter half of the 20th century the hospital facilities diversified with specialist units established for respiratory disease, ear, nose and throat surgery, maxillo-facial surgery, care of the elderly and latterly HIV/AIDS. The hospital closed in 1999 and was redeveloped as residential housing, known as Greenbank Village.
Ken Cowan was a Scottish AIDS activist and founder/director of PHACE West, the project for HIV and Aids education in the West of Scotland.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
