Hospital type General Hospital Number of beds 570 Care system NHS Scotland | Phone +44 131 537 1000 Founded 1868 | |
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Location Edinburgh, Lothian, Scotland Emergency department Minor Injuries Unit only Website Western General Hospital Address Crewe Rd S, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK Hours Open today ยท Open 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSuggest an edit Affiliated university University of Edinburgh Medical School Similar St John's Hospital - Livingston, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital, Borders General Hospital, Victoria Hospital | ||
Western general hospital circa 1975
The Western General Hospital (often abbreviated to simply "The Western"), at Crewe Road, Edinburgh, Scotland, is part of NHS Lothian, a Health Board which provides a comprehensive range of adult and paediatric care to the people of Edinburgh, the Lothians and beyond.
Contents
The hospital has around 570 beds including day beds. It is one of the main teaching hospitals affiliated to the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
Facilities
Although the Western no longer has an Accident and Emergency, a nurse-led minor injuries unit has been running since 1994. The hospital does contain an Acute Receiving Unit and Admissions Unit which patients can be referred to by their general practitioner.
The hospital serves as a base for the neurology and neurosurgery centre for south east Scotland ("Department of Clinical Neurosciences"), the regional oncology, infectious diseases and haematology Units, the regional Colorectal Surgical Unit and the Stroke Research Unit for Lothian. There is a major national cancer research and treatment centre at the hospital, which had refurbishment work completed in 2007. There is also a urology department on the site.
The hospital also contains the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit. (Clinical services in Scotland for adults with cystic fibrosis are also provided from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow.) The Edinburgh team runs an outreach clinic in Dundee, and the University of Dundee is home to the cystic fibrosis audit database, which collects data on all registered CF patients to monitor their health trends. Training and support is also available for patients and their carers to facilitate and maximise independent living and to encourage community based management wherever possible, and there is also provision for in-patient and day case clinical management.
The first Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre opened on the Western General site in 1996.
History
The first hospital functions were established on the site in 1868 when it was known as Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse.
The nearby Royal Victoria Hospital is due to be reprovided on the Western General Hospital site in May 2012 with at least 130 Medicine for the Elderly and Stroke rehabilitation beds moving onto the site in addition to the existing 64 Acute Medicine for the Elderly / Acute Stroke beds.
A facility to treat young people with cancer aged 16 to 24 was opened in December 2013.