University College Hospital

The hospital was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, eight years after UCL (then known as the London University), in order to provide clinical training for the "medical classes" of the university, after a refusal by the governors of the Middlesex Hospital to allow students access to that hospital's wards.[2] It soon became known as University College Hospital.[2]

In 1835, Robert Liston became the first professor of clinical surgery at UCH,[3][4] and the first major operation under ether in Europe was conducted at the hospital by Liston on 21 December 1846.[2] UCH was split from UCL in 1905, and a new hospital building designed by Alfred Waterhouse, known as the Cruciform Building, was opened in 1906 on Gower Street. UCH merged with the National Dental Hospital in 1914, and the Royal Ear Hospital in 1920.[2]

George Orwell married Sonia Brownell in 1949, and later died 21 January 1950, in room 65 of the hospital.[5] The hospital was run by the Bloomsbury Area Health Authority from 1974. In 1994, UCH became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust.[2] The hospital site at the Cruciform Building was closed in 1995, despite strikes and an occupation in 1993.[6] The building was purchased by UCL, for use as the home for the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research and the teaching facility for UCL bioscience and medical students UCL Medical School.[7]

A new 75,822 m² hospital, procured under the Private Finance Initiative in 2000, designed by Llewelyn Davies Yeang[8] and built by a joint venture of AMEC and Balfour Beatty at a cost of £422 million, opened in 2005.[9][10] In October 2006, the hospital was nominated and made the Building Design shortlist for the inaugural Carbuncle Cup, awarded to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months",[11] which was ultimately awarded to Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth.[12] Facilities management services are provided by Interserve.[1]

In November 2008, the £70 million Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing was opened, allowing the hospital to offer all women's health services in one place (except some breast and gynaecology services).[13]

As of 2015 the following services were provided at the hospital:[14]

The hospital has 665 in-patient beds, 12 operating theatres and houses the largest single critical care unit in the NHS.[1][14] The Accident and Emergency department sees approximately 120,000 patients a year.[15] It is a major teaching hospital and a key location for the UCL Medical School.[16] It is also a major centre for medical research and part of both the UCLH/UCL Biomedical Research Centre and the UCL Partners academic health science centre.[17][18]

The urology department moved to University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, formerly the Heart Hospital, in 2015.[19][20]

• Sir Thomas Lewis, cardiologist at the hospital
• Marcus Beck
• Agatha Christie
• Jean Smellie
• Elizabeth Joan Stokes (1937–40, 1944–77)
• Ernst Chain Nobel Prize winner

• Francis Crick Institute
• UCL Medical School
• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Healthcare in London
• List of hospitals in England
• Murder of Alexander Litvinenko (having been transferred here, he died here in November 2006, as a result of polonium-210 poisoning)

• Merrington, William, (1976) University College Hospital and its Medical School: a history, Heinemann ISBN 9780434465002

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University College Hospital.

• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• UCL Partners
• UCL Medical School
• UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences
• Cruciform Building - History and Design