Royal Postgraduate Medical School

The Royal Postgraduate Medical School(RPMS) was an independent medical school in England. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of the Imperial College School of Medicine.

History

The medical school had its roots in the British Postgraduate Medical School, based at Hammersmith Hospital. It incorporated by Royal Charter in 1931 and opened in 1935. It was the result of recommendations by the Athlone Report of 1921, and was a pioneer institution of postgraduate clinical teaching and research. The school had always been closely linked with the Hammersmith Hospital and the Medical Research Council, where its teaching research and clinical work was carried out. Senior academic staff of the school provided consultant services and academic leadership for Hammersmith Hospital.The RPMS has had an enormous influence on British Medicine and had a major role in developing Endocrine Surgery in the UK.

The school became part of the British Postgraduate Medical Foundation in 1947, and was known as the Postgraduate Medical School of London. In 1974 the school became independent, with a new charter and the title Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Its separate status ended in 1997 when its entity was destroyed by is assimilation into Imperial College London.Hammersmith Hospital. It is now a distict general hospital and is still a centre of postgraduate medical education and research although its influence is much less than in the past.