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We Take Hospitals And The Healthcare They Provide For Granted, But Some Of Our Best Known Healthcare Facilities Were Founded Out Of Necessity Due To Social Changes In The UK

19th March, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Ask anyone to name some renowned hospitals in the Britain and without question the same pair of names will almost always get mentioned. Almost everyone will know of Great Ormond Street Hospital which specialises in child health and Moorfields which is the unchallenged leader in the treatment of eye complaints.

One thing both Great Ormond Street and Moorfields have in common is that they were started up in the 1800’s to address the lack of adequate resources to handle child health issues and eye complaints. They have since evolved to become the most highly regarded hospitals in their areas of expertise, helping to find new ways of dealing with children’s illnesses and health issues in the case of Great Ormond Street, and being supporters of new surgical procedures such as Laser eye treatments in the case of Moorfields.

Moorfields was opened in 1805 by John Cunningham Saunders and is the oldest healthcare facility for specialist eye treatment in the world. It was originally opened to dispense to the large number of soldiers who were returning from the Napoleonic Wars in Egypt with symptoms of having a serious strain of tropical conjunctivitis which could cause blindness if left without medical attention.

More than half of all the ophthalmologists (eye specialists) employed in the UK have completed at least a percentage of their training at Moorfields as well as a large number of those who provide numerous treatments and various Laser eye surgery operations elsewhere across the globe.

The hospital moved to its current site in City Road, London in 1899 as it had outgrown the original premises, and was absorbed into the NHS when it was founded in 1948. It was formally titled Moorfields Eye Hospital at that time. It consistently offers some of the most effective eye care in the world for all kinds of complaints ranging from common problems which can be treated with glasses or simple Laser eye treatment to those out of the ordinary and complicated issues which cannot be treated anywhere else in the UK. It has also advertised its availability to private patients and those from outside the UK who can afford to pay for treatment, and a large amount of Laser eye surgery is carried out each year for paying patients.

Great Ormond Street Hospital was opened in 1852 by Dr Charles West. The population of London had grown faster than ever over the previous few decades, due to the combined effects of the Industrial Revolution and the end of war with France, but healthcare for the ever expanding number of people needing medical assistance had not increased to accommodate this demand. In particular, hospital admissions for children were completely non-existent as the authorities felt that children were unimportant, and even youngsters with serious illnesses were considered to be best off remaining at home with their mother until they gave into the illness, rather than trying to organise medical intervention.

Charles West was not impressed with this lack of care and with a large amount of determination and contributions from some respected healthcare reformers of the era he managed to find sufficient support to start up the very first children’s hospital, primarily to help the poorly offspring of the large share of the population who were living in poverty.

Great Ormond Street continued as a voluntary hospital until it was absorbed into the NHS in 1948, and until then all of the senior staff carried out their jobs at the hospital for free as part of their social duty. They made their money from private clinic work, but in addition gained much prestige from working at Great Ormond Street where their knowledge increased massively, no doubt to the good fortune of their private patients also. The hospital has continued to expand and improve its premises in the decades since then and is unparalleled in its expertise in child health and the treatment of childhood diseases.

It is a great achievement of both of these hospitals that they are still at the forefront of treatment for specific groups – on the one hand, a large section of society, regardless of what health problems they have, and on the other hand, people who have a problem with a vital part of the body which can cause countless difficulties for the patient if it goes wrong.