THE PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL Royal Infirmary 250 years ago
Fetch the apothecary! A stay at Leicester
IT all started in a pub. There was beer, some wealthy philanthropists and an idea.
The city was missing something other areas had. It would be for the good of the people, but it needed funding.
Over an ale, or two, or maybe most likely more, Dr William Watts, of Medbourne, revealed his vision – that Leicester should have a hospital.
“Working in Northampton Hospital he had seen for himself the difference it could make. He was very keen for Leicester to have something similar,” said Jon Currington, head of partnerships and business development at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL).
Ahead of the Leicester Royal Infirmary’s 250th anniversary later this year, Jon and his colleagues are preparing to mark the milestone. He has revealed some of the lesser-known facts about its past as plans are starting to be put in place.
“Healthcare in 1771 was something the wealthy paid for at home. Those who couldn’t afford it, didn’t get it,” he said.
“William, a doctor working at Northampton Hospital wanted to change that and so he called a meeting in the old Three Cranes pub, where Boots now stands on Gallowtree Gate.”
With subscribers and benefactors on board and the funds needed raised, the talks became a reality.
A plot of greenbelt land on the edge of the city was purchased and built from bricks dug from a pit where the emergency department now stands was the Leicester Royal Infirmary. The price tag – £2,762.
There were 40 beds, two physicians, a matron, two nurses, a porter and an apothecary.
Fast forward to today and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) is now one of the largest organisations in the NHS.
It employs more than 15,000 people, has an annual turnover of £1.1 billion and serves a population of over 1 million people. The trust’s three sites have more than 1,000 beds.
Pay rates also differed, as Jon explained: “The porter was paid more than the nurses, he earned £6 a year, nurses earned £5 and the matron earned £10 and the promise of a £5 gratuity if she gave ‘satisfaction’ according to the records.”
The staff manned five wards and the matron and nurses lived on site.
Patients – who were only admitted on Tuesdays – were selected at a board meeting held in the pub.
“There was an expectation that patients did a lot of care themselves,” Jon said.
“They looked after themselves and other patients, fitter patients, would be required to take dead bodies to the church.”
Patients were so poor that they could not afford their own healthcare. Instead, a subscriber met the cost.
“Each patient had to have a guinea paid by a board member or benefactor,” said Jon. “Should they make it out alive, the guinea was returned, if they died it was paid to the church to cover funeral and burial costs.”
Some thing never change and even in Georgian England, bed blocking was a problem, said Jon.
“Patients would get in and stay in and it was often difficult to get them out,” he added.
Other things, though, couldn’t be further from the way things are done in the modern day.
“There was no running water when the hospital was first built,” said Jon. “The well was an afterthought, not included in the original plans and cost an additional £37.”
But before it was built, there was something else for the patients to drink – beer, brewed on site in the hospital’s own brewery.
“It was looked after by the apothercarist, water then wasn’t great quality. Patients were given it for their welfare and records show that the staff also drank it.
“Repeated intoxication was a reason for dismissal, though one-off drunkenness saw staff disciplined.
“Records show the porter was sacked for repeated incidences of intoxication.”
Other things that were forbidden included swearing and cursing, being rude, playing cards or dice and smoking without leave.
“The smoking rule is strange, the banning of smoking in hospitals is a fairly recent change, I can remember people smoking in hospitals in my lifetime,” Jon said.
“Mixed wards were banned too and male and female staff and board members were not allowed to mix.
“There are records that show ‘improper conversations between males and females took place in open air’ leading to the chains and posts being ordered to separate them.”
When the men of the board met in the Three Cranes, women met at the Three Crowns.
The hospital was completely self-sufficient, linens were donated, and as well as the brewery there was a vegetable patch, cows and pigs – and it was the porter’s role to take care of it all.
Jon said: “Things were very different then, there are lots of photographs, records and artefacts and we want to share some of the hospital’s history with the people of Leicester.
“We have lots of plans, all funded by grants and donations, to help do that.”
Patients, who were only admitted on Tuesdays, were selected at a board meeting held in the pub