Hospitals

Hospitals began to be established in London in the 18th century, founded for those who were indigent and sick.  However, they probably didn't help much and may have even spread disease (Olsen, 18).  Some of the London hospitals were:
- Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies (actually an orphanage)
- St. Bartholomew's

Current hospital sign
13 October 2012

- St. Thomas's for the Sick and Poor [site of the current Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret]
- Bethlem ("Bedlam")
- The Westminster
- Guy's Hospital [noted for having the first common privy in 1774 and the first indoor toilets in 1788 (Olsen, 265)]
- St. George's Hospital for the Sick and Lame
- The London Hospital


Entrance to
St. Bartholomew's Chapel
13 October 2012

- The Middlesex
- The New Lock Hospital for venereal disease
- 3 smallpox hospitals
- St. Luke's private hospital for the mentally ill
- maternity hospitals for the last month of pregancy and labor.

Admissions skyrocketed from 13,000 in 1744 to 38,000 in 1749.  To be admitted to most hospitals, a patient had to have an authorization letter from a hospital governor (Picard, 78-95), who was a wealthy person who had donated to the hospital both for philanthropic reasons and for the right to recommend patients for admission (Picard?).

Patients were expected to refrain from swearing; at Guy's Hospital one would be discharged after the third offense.  Patients were also expected to assist the nurses with tasks and could be discharged -- cured or not -- if they did not comply (Olsen, 265-67). 



St. Thomas's Diet, 1741
(Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret)





A third of the patients admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital in the early 1800s were there for syphillis.  They were the first fee-paying patients.  Previously, since hospitals were charitable organizations, patients were only admitted if they were poor enough and if they were curable.  Hospitals did not admit someone who could die (Mathias).

Teaching hospitals did not exist most of the 18th century (Wellcome Museum, permanent display, 14 October 2012), although as time went along, hospitals became more willing to train both physicians and surgeons.  These posts were highly desired (Olsen, 265).  The oldest operating room in Europe is found today at the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret, in a building from 1703.

Surgical table with box of sawdust underneath to catch blood
Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret
15 October 2012

Old Operating Theatre with view to stalls for students
15 October 2012

Remember, this was before the understanding of how infections were passed and therefore of sterilization.  The practice of using carbolic acid to sterilize surgical instruments and surgeons' hands did not begin until the 1860s (Mathias).  So think of the bacteria that grew in all that wood!