Leith Hospital

Origins

There was a hospital in Leith from 1614. The King James Hospital, in the Kirkgate, was named after King James VI, then aged five, in whose name a charter was given to the hospital. The hospital was demolished in 1822, although part of the wall can still be seen today, forming the boundary between the Kirkgate and south Leith Kirkyard.

It was another 30 years before the establishment known as Leith Hospital opened. When it did so in 1851, it could trace its origins to three other institutions.

The Humane Society (later the Royal Humane Society) had started in London in 1774 with the aim of affording" immediate relief to persons apparently dead from drowning". Within a few years, Humane Society branches had opened all over Great Britain and in 1788 premises and equipment were provided in Leith, at first in Burgess Close and Bernard Street and then in Broad Wynd. The society aimed to resuscitate those who had fallen into the harbour waters. This was achieved in a number of different ways but principally by warming the victims in the premises, at a fire which was supposed to be kept constantly alight for the purpose.

The room also contained a bath where heating the patient could continue. Other techniques used included artificial ventilation of the lungs using bellows, mouth to mouth resuscitation and electric shock stimulation.

In 1816 a dispensary was opened, also in Broad Wynd, at number 17, a few doors along from the Humane Society room. Founded by Dr. Andrew Duncan (1744-1828), the dispensary consisted of a consulting room, a small laboratory and a single bed. There the citizens of Leith could be offered medicines and medical advice.

In 1825 the Humane Society and the dispensary combined, but despite this, they were still unable to meet the health needs of the growing population of Leith. Although they were able to offer vaccination for all children, they could do little that was effective against the infectious diseases to which Leith, as a busy seaport, was particularly vulnerable.

In 1837, the combined Humane Society and dispensary extended their activities by moving to a large house in Quality Street, now (Maritime Street), in what effectively became a Casualty Hospital. However, this arrangement was still far from ideal. Cramped, insanitary and understaffed, it proved inadequate for both staff and patients.

Planning the hospital

By the 1840s, Leith was an independent burgh of some 40,000 people and pressure increased to establish and fund a new hospital. A public meeting in 1846 was called, it was agreed that the new institution would be called "The Leith Hospital", a committee was formed and £115 was collected in subscriptions

Donations made towards the hospital included £1000 from the estate of John Stewart of Laverockbank, but it was several years before agreement could be reached about the best site and for work to start. In 1850, the year before the opening of the new hospital, the Dispensary had dealt with 2699 patients, the Casualty Hospital had treated 245 patients and the Humane Society seven patients.

The new building was planned by a committee which included the provost, baillies, local ministers, businessmen and doctors. A plot of land was purchased at the upper end of Sheriff Brae in 1849 .

The new hospital was built facing Mill Lane and was a two storey building, with fever patients housed on the upper floor and the Humane Society, dispensary and casualty on the ground floor. The hospital opened to patients in 1851.

The early years

Much of the funding required to maintain the hospital was raised within the local Leith community. The new hospital incorporated the functions of the Casualty Hospital and the dispensary. The first consulting physician to the hospital was James Scarth Combe (1796-1883), best known for his 1822 description of pernicious anaemia some years before that of Thomas Addison (1739-1860) whose name remains associated with the condition.In 1875 an extension to the hospital was built in King Street to meet increasing demand for its services. Another early physician was Dr John Coldstream (1806-1863). As a charitable institution the hospital depended on funds which were raised in the local community from individuals and from local institutions including the North and South Leith Poor Boards and local churches.

In 1866 the hospital appointed its first district nurse, Mrs. Brown “to carry out faithfully the doctors’ orders, to instruct the relations or friends of the patient in the art of good nursing and to inculcate, and if necessary enforce, attention to cleanliness”. The hospital paid for her to attend a nursing course at King's College , London. Popular and hardworking she made 13,000 home visits in 1877 alone.

In 1874 the hospital appointed its first qualified Lady Superintendent of Nursing.

Two further extensions were added to the hospital in 1873 and 1888. In 1903 to mark Queen Victoria’s jubilee a new major extension, the surgical block, was opened on King Street facing the nurses’ home which had been built on the opposite side of the street. The two buildings were connected by tunnel running under King Street.

The Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women at Leith Hospital

Sophia Jex Blake (1840-1912) had established the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in Surgeons' Square, Edinburgh but the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh did not allow the teaching of women medical students and so she approached Leith Hospital, requesting access for a comprehensive programme of clinical teaching for her students. In 1887 Leith Hospital became the first hospital in Scotland to open its doors to women students. The arrangement began well and the women medical students were popular at the hospital. In 1888 an incident in the hospital would lead to the demise of Sex blades school of medicine. She had a strict rule that students must leave the hospital by 5pm. Four students stayed on to follow a case after hours in breach of the rule . Sex Blake dismissed 2 of these, Ina and Grace Cadell. Their response was to sue Jex Blake and the school for wrongful dismissal, and they won their case and were awarded damages. This was widely publicised, and the opposition to medical education for women put further pressure on Sex Blake. Her medical school closed in 1898.

The Twentieth Century

At the start of the 20th century Leith was a modern busy hospital, at last able to meet the health needs of the community which it served. The pressure on beds was further relieved by the opening of the East Pilton Fever Hospital later to become the Northern General Hospital.

In 1908 the South Leith poorhouse moved to Seafield where it later became the Eastern General Hospital. The vacated site which fronted on to Great Junction Street was bought by the hospital in the hope that it might be used for future expansion.

The Leith community was devastated by the tragic loss of many of its young men on their way to fight in the First World War. The Gretna train disaster (Quintshill Rail Disaster) in May 1916 resulted in 226 fatalities of whom 214 were soldiers of the Seventh Battalion Royal Scots (Leith’s Own) on their way to Gallipoli. This still remains Britain’s worst rail disaster. A bed was endowed in Leith Hospital to their memory.

A school of nursing was established and recognised by the general nursing Council in 1923.

In 1938 a major extension was made to the Nurse's home on King Street.

After the war demand grew for a children’s ward. Children requiring inpatient treatment had to share a ward with adults, a situation which was not ideal for either group. As communities throughout the country raised funds for war memorials, the Leith community decided that their war memorial should take the form of the children’s wing for Leith Hospital. Fundraising started in 1919. The people of Leith and some major benefactors again proved generous in support for their hospital. Many individual benefactors supported the hospital by endowing beds,in memory of relative killed in action in the First World War.

The new building opened in January 1927. It extended into the site of the former poorhouse which has since been landscaped as Taylor Gardens.

In May 1935 the children’s wing had a royal visit from the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The Duke (1902 - 1942), son of King George V and then aged 33, was later killed on active service as a pilot in the Second World War.

Between the wars the Leith Hospital pageants became a feature of the annual calendar each June. Most of Leith’s factories, shops and organisations supported the event. In the 1930s the costs of running a modern hospital continued to escalate. The financial demands of medical technology like radiology, combined with the costs of serving an industrial community in which deprivation was common, meant that financing the hospital was to become a permanent problem until the hospital was taken over by the NHS in 1948.

In the latter half of the 20th century the hospital had adult general medical and general surgical in-patient wards, and paediatric medical and surgical wards with a dedicated paediatric operating theatre.

Ancillary services included radiology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work and pharmacy. Specialist out-patient clinics included ophthalmology, gynaecology

Closure

Leith Hospital closed in 1987, with the buildings converted to residential units. Local protests, including a petition to keep the hospital open, were unsuccessful. The building was sold for £1.65million. Six years later, the Leith Community Treatment Centre opened in Junction Place, offering a reduced range of services.

In October 2011, the Edinburgh-based Citadel Arts Group published Leith Hospital Recalled, a collection of memories from 50 contributors who were treated in or worked at the hospital. The project was funded by the Leith Benevolent Trust. A play based on the stories in the book, Leith's Hidden Treasure, was produced by the same group in 2012. Written by Laure C Paterson, the play was performed as part of the Leith Hospital Project, at the 2012 Leith Festival.