Cottage hospital

Passmore Edwards Cottage Hospital in Acton, London. Built c. 1900, it was funded by John Passmore Edwards. (September 2006)

The original concept of a cottage hospital was a small rural hospital having up to 25 beds. One advantage of such a hospital in villages was the familiarity the local physician might have with their patient that may affect their treatment. This local knowledge of the patient would probably have been lost, had they been referred to their nearest county hospital, as was typical for poorer patients.

Some cottage hospitals still exist today. In particular, several can be found within NHS Grampian, a Scottish region of the National Health Service. More remain in operation in Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland and Norfolk. Some of these are today termed Community Hospital but were founded as Cottage Hospitals and locally are called such.

History

In 1827 Sir Astley Cooper converted some cottages at Piccotts End, very close to Hemel Hempstead into the first cottage hospital providing free medical services. ^[1]

The first established cottage hospital was at Cranley in 1859. By 1866, there were 16 in operation, and at least 67 more being established.

Examples

• Turriff Cottage Hospital

Ruth Lancaster James Hospital - Alston

• Fleming Cottage Hospital Vivianeville
• Stephen Cottage Hospital
• Wells Cottage Hospital, Norfolk
• Castle Douglas Cottage Hospital
• Lochmaben Hospital
• Cottage Hospital, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
• Stretford Memorial Hospital (formerly the Stretford Practitioners' Hospital) was in its early days a cottage hospital used for women and children only.^[2]

References

1. ^ Dacorum Heritage Trust [1]
2. ^ The Book of Manchester and Salford; written for the British Medical Association. Manchester: George Falkner & Sons, 1929; pp. 150-51

External links

• Images of England, Definition of Cottage Hospital
• Cottage Hospitals - Editorial, Submitted by Alan Longbottom. Original source The Builder 1868 Vol XXVI pp145. 29 February 1868
• [2] Wells Cottage Hospital
• [3] A guide to Dumfries and Galloway Hospitals, the surviving community or cottage hospitals are clearly evident.