Royal London Hospital
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The Royal London Hospital, formerly the London Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in Whitechapel, London. It is part of the Barts and the London NHS Trust, alongside St Bartholomew's Hospital ("Barts"), which is a couple of miles away. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. It is also the base for the HEMS helicopter ambulance service, operating out of a specially rebuilt roof area. There are 675 Beds at the Royal London Hospital.
The medical college at the hospital, the first in England and Wales, was founded in 1785. It amalgamated in 1995 with that of Barts, under the aegis of Queen Mary, University of London, to become Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry.
In March 2005 planning permission was granted for a major redevelopment and expansion of the Royal London. Work on the £1.2 billion project is expected to start in late 2005. After the completion of the project the hospital will have London’s leading trauma and emergency care centre, Europe’s largest renal service and the capital’s second biggest paediatric service. Barts is also undergoing redevelopment and will become a cancer and cardiac centre of excellence.
Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man", spent the last few years of life at the Royal London and his bones are kept at the hospital.
[edit] The ghost
In one of the terminal wards [There are no 'terminal' wards at RLH] the ghost of a late Victorian nurse is reputed to bring comfort to certain dying patients. Staff carrying out the night rounds sometimes have their patients say that "the lady in grey has just been to see me" which implies that this person will be dead before the morning. On questioning, the "Lady in grey" is described as being in a typical late Victorian nurse's uniform with the peculiarity that the apparition seems to stop short at knee height. The significant fact is that during post war restoration of the building, the floor level of this ward was raised by two feet (60cms). These patients present an unusual serenity with no sign of previous pain or anxiety.
[edit] Museum and Archives
The Royal London has a museum which is located in the crypt of a 19th century church. It reopened to the public in 2002 after extensive refurbishment and is open to the public free of charge. The museum covers the history of the hospital since its foundation in 1740 and the wider history of medicine in the East End. It includes works of art, surgical instruments, medical and nursing equipment, uniforms, medals, documents and books. There is a forensic medicine section which includes original material on Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen and the Christie murders. There are also displays on Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') and former Hospital nurse Edith Cavell.
The Royal London's archives contain documents dating back to 1740, including complete patient records since 1883, but the best narrative of the hospital is probably given by W. Somerset Maugham where he describes the institution as a place of misery where the male patients are predominantly cases of alcohol related diseases, the women are mostly cases of malnutrition, and the rest are unwanted pregnancies.
