Royal United Hospital

The Royal United Hospital is located in the Weston suburb of Bath, about 1½ miles from Bath city centre.

The Royal United Hospital takes its name from the union of the "Bath Casualty Hospital" founded in 1788 and the "Bath City Dispensary and Infirmary" founded in 1792. The Casualty Hospital was founded in response to the serious injuries sustained to labourers working on the buildings which were being constructed in the city. The Dispensary and Infirmary developed from the "Bath Pauper Scheme", a charity founded in 1747 to provide medical treatment for destitute persons in Bath.

The combined institution opened in 1826 in Beau Street in a building designed by John Pinch the elder. It was awarded the title "Royal" by Queen Victoria in 1864. The building is now occupied by Bath Technical College.

The hospital moved to its present site, Combe Park, on 11 December 1932. In 1959 it absorbed the Ear Nose and Throat Hospital and in 1973 the Bath Eye Infirmary.It became an NHS Hospital Trust in 1992.

The hospital has 687 beds and occupies a 52 acre site.

On the 29th Feb 2008 a conservative peer - lord Mancroft - made a scathing attack on nursing staff at the hospital, claiming that many nurses who looked after him were "promiscuous, lazy and grubby".

External links

* [http://www.ruh.nhs.uk/ Royal United Hospital, Bath]
* [http://www.medicalheritage.co.uk/Bath/RUH.htm Medical Heritage - RUH Bath]
* [http://www.banes-pct.nhs.uk Bath & North East Somerset PCT]
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7270565.stm