West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital

The West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital is a healthcare facility in Yorkhill, Glasgow. The new ambulatory care facility was created in December 2015 to house the remaining outpatient services and the minor injury unit previously housed at the Western Infirmary. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital
West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital is located in Glasgow council area
West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital
Location within Glasgow
Geography
LocationYorkhill, Glasgow, Scotland
Coordinates55°52′00″N 4°17′48″W / 55.86667°N 4.29667°W / 55.86667; -4.29667
Organisation
Care systemNHS Scotland
Services
Emergency departmentNo
History
Opened2015
Links
Websitewww.nhsggc.org.uk/locations/hospitals/west-glasgow-ambulatory-care-hospital/
ListsHospitals in Scotland

The building was previously the Royal Hospital for Sick Children commonly referred to simply as "Yorkhill" or "Sick Kids". The hospital provided care for newborn babies up to children around 13 years of age, including a specialist Accident and Emergency facility and the only Donor Milk Banking facility in Scotland. After services transferred to the Royal Hospital for Children, one of the hospitals build on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus on the Southside of the city, the children's hospital closed in June 2015.

History edit

The hospital has its origins in a facility at Garnethill which opened as the Hospital for Sick Children on 20 December 1882. It took almost 22 years to come to fruition due to a dispute with the University of Glasgow regarding a suitable site.[1]

When opened, the hospital had 58 beds.[1] It was funded by charitable donations.[2] The hospital admitted its first patient, a 5-year-old boy with curvature of the spine, on 8 January 1883.[1] A further 12 beds were added when Thomas Carlyle converted a house next door into an annexe in 1887.[1] The hospital was given Royal patronage in 1889 when the prefix was added to its title.[3] The old hospital is now occupied by St Aloysius' College.[4]

The hospital was suffering from a chronic lack of space by the 1900s and as a result a new site at Yorkhill was chosen for a replacement hospital building. A public appeal had raised almost £140,000. Designed by John James Burnet, the new building opened in July 1914.[5]

In the 1930s Matthew White started operating on children with cleft lip and cleft palate. He brought in Anne McAllister to administer speech therapy so that the children could make a full recovery.[6]

On 11 July 1964, the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital opened on a site adjacent to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.[7] In 1966, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children was temporarily relocated to the former Oakbank Hospital buildings in Woodside in order to facilitate the demolition of the existing building, which was discovered to be suffering from severe structural defects. The rebuilt facility at Yorkhill was officially opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1972.[8]

After services transferred to the new Royal Hospital for Children in Govan,[9] the hospital at Yorkhill closed as a children's facility on 10 June 2015.[10]

The hospital building reopened as the West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital on 4 December 2015. The new ambulatory care facility was created to house the remaining outpatient services and the minor injury unit previously housed at the Western Infirmary.[11]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "A Brief History of the Early Days of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow". Historical Hospital Admission Records Project. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  2. ^ Bradford, Eleanor (8 December 2010). "Records reveal life at Victorian children's hospital". BBC News. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Yorkhill), Glasgow". National Archives. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  4. ^ "Our Campus". St Aloysius' College. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  5. ^ "Yorkhill hospital celebrates 100 years of caring for children". STV News. 7 July 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  6. ^ Renfrew, C. (2004-09-23). McAllister, Anne Hutchison (1892–1983), speech therapist and teacher. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 17 Jan. 2018, see link Archived 26 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Queen Mother's maternity hospital closes doors". BBC News. 13 January 2010. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  8. ^ "Records of Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, Scotland". Archives Hub. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  9. ^ "End of an era as Yorkhill shuts its doors to emergency patients". Evening Times. 11 June 2015. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  10. ^ "The Royal Hospital for Sick Children 1882-2015" (PDF). nhsggc.org.uk. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  11. ^ "City's health services are on the move". Evening Times. 5 December 2015. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2015.