#nationalhealthservice — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.europesays.com/britain/33953/ Britain’s NHS to grant Palantir contractors ‘unlimited access’ to patient data, FT reports #BriefingNote #Britain #NationalHealthService #NDIT #NHSEngland #Palantir #PatientData #UnlimitedAccess

#uk #healthcare #NationalHealthService #NHS
BBC News - People urged to 'make best use' of NHS services.

3/April/2026

Cameron Weldon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp86vev6925o

#London #uk #healthcare #NationalHealthService #NHS
BBC News - NHS staff star in musical on antibiotic resistance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk0d521gryo

@mlanger
My excuse is that by the time we put the #lightsout at night it's usually around 02:00 and then I fall #asleep to the sounds of an #audiobook or my nephew's #radioshow on #catch-up.

I call it keeping #musician's hours. #Gigs never finish that early and then you have to travel home.

The dear old #NHS (#NationalHealthService) has finally decided after a year or so on a waiting list to out source it's #Neurology #Appointments. I'm hoping that will get to the bottom of the problem, even if it does mean diagnosis of something similar to my father, who from around my age progressed through #walkingframe to #wheelchair as the strength disappeared from his legs.

@mlanger
My excuse is that by the time we put the #lightsout at night it's usually around 02:00 and then I fall #asleep to the sounds of an #audiobook or my nephew's #radioshow on #catch-up.

I call it keeping #musician's hours. #Gigs never finish that early and then you have to travel home.

The dear old #NHS (#NationalHealthService) has finally decided after a year or so on a waiting list to out source it's #Neurology #Appointments. I'm hoping that will get to the bottom of the problem, even if it does mean diagnosis of something similar to my father, who from around my age progressed through #walkingframe to #wheelchair as the strength disappeared from his legs.

@mlanger
My excuse is that by the time we put the #lightsout at night it's usually around 02:00 and then I fall #asleep to the sounds of an #audiobook or my nephew's #radioshow on #catch-up.

I call it keeping #musician's hours. #Gigs never finish that early and then you have to travel home.

The dear old #NHS (#NationalHealthService) has finally decided after a year or so on a waiting list to out source it's #Neurology #Appointments. I'm hoping that will get to the bottom of the problem, even if it does mean diagnosis of something similar to my father, who from around my age progressed through #walkingframe to #wheelchair as the strength disappeared from his legs.

https://www.europesays.com/cz/14533/ S výdejními boxy se inspirujeme v Česku, říká Křetínského manažer v Royal Mail #Business #Byznys #Česko #DanielKřetínský #Dánsko #NationalHealthService #Ofcom #RoyalMail #SpojenéKrálovství #tradice #Vánoce

Is there a link between autism and being transgender? Here's what the science says

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/health/autism-link-transgender-lgbtq

Is there a link between autism and being transgender? Here's what the science says

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/health/autism-link-transgender-lgbtq

Is there a link between autism and being transgender? Here's what the science says

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/health/autism-link-transgender-lgbtq

Mutual Aid or Mutual Assured Destruction
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/26/mutual-aid-or-mutual-assured-destruction/
Cooperation is more important than competition in human survival, argued Peter Kropotkin. After competition brought two world wars, mutual aid twice sought to rescue humanity. Will there be a third chance? asks Joe Lauria. The following is the full text…
#Politics #Analysis #AncientWorld #Books #Brics #Britain #Commentary #Europe #France #History #NuclearWeapons #Revolution #Russia #Switzerland #UnitedNations #UnitedStates #WorldWarI #WorldWarIi #Anarchism #CoordinatorOfGovernmentActivitiesInTheTerritories #Habsburg(austriaHungary) #Hohenzollern(germany) #JoeLauria #MargaretThatcher #MiddleAges #MihailBakunin #MutualAid #NationalHealthService(nhs) #PetrKropotkin #Romanov(russia) #RonaldReagan #VladimirLenin

Mutual Aid or Mutual Assured Destruction
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/26/mutual-aid-or-mutual-assured-destruction/
Cooperation is more important than competition in human survival, argued Peter Kropotkin. After competition brought two world wars, mutual aid twice sought to rescue humanity. Will there be a third chance? asks Joe Lauria. The following is the full text…
#Politics #Analysis #AncientWorld #Books #Brics #Britain #Commentary #Europe #France #History #NuclearWeapons #Revolution #Russia #Switzerland #UnitedNations #UnitedStates #WorldWarI #WorldWarIi #Anarchism #CoordinatorOfGovernmentActivitiesInTheTerritories #Habsburg(austriaHungary) #Hohenzollern(germany) #JoeLauria #MargaretThatcher #MiddleAges #MihailBakunin #MutualAid #NationalHealthService(nhs) #PetrKropotkin #Romanov(russia) #RonaldReagan #VladimirLenin

Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/florida-medical-groups-transgender-lawsuit

Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/florida-medical-groups-transgender-lawsuit

Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/florida-medical-groups-transgender-lawsuit

Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/florida-medical-groups-transgender-lawsuit

Florida sues leading medical groups for supporting gender-affirming care

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/florida-medical-groups-transgender-lawsuit

@jbz

So if the GP’s are worried?

Where is Streeting getting his MIS- information?

Does he make it all up?

#nationalhealthservice
#ukpol
#ukgovernment

Treat the cause, NOT the symptoms.

So #Streeting has plucked out of thin air the notion that people with mental health issues are malingerers rather than suffering any real decrease in health.

Another case where #ukgovernment have produced a negative nit-picking non-solution to cut costs rather than address any real solution.

#ukpol #nhs #nationalhealthservice

Please allow the medical #professionals to do their jobs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0k520v4xro

A bad deal for the UK, as drug prices will be forced up.

Pharmaceutical companies hate the bargaining power that the NHS enjoys because of its centralized purchasing system and will be delighted to see the UK government buckle under the US attack.

The zero tariff agreement - even if the the Trump administration keeps its side of the bargain - will benefit corporations rather than patients.

A bad day for the National Health Service and for the UK as a whole. A bad day for other countries too, as the Trump administration will certainly take this as a sign that bullying works when it comes to drug pricing.🙁

##UKPolitics #UKTrade ##DrugPricing #NHS #NationalHealthService #USUKRelations

https://www.europesays.com/uk/605840/ England’s resident doctors plan pre-Christmas strikes over pay #Britain #BritishMedicalAssociation #England #GreatBritain #JuniorDoctors #NationalHealthService #ResidentDoctors #TheGovernment #UK #UnitedKingdom #WesStreeting

Nanox.AI Bone Solutions, Advanced AI-Powered Software for Spine Assessment, Recommended by NICE for Early Value Assessment in UK National Health Service hospitals

NANO-X IMAGING LTD Nanox’s HealthOST and HeathVCF recommended for use in UK National Health Service hospitals for a…
#NewsBeep #News #Healthcare #AU #Australia #fragilityfractures #Health #medicalimagingtechnology #Nanox #NationalHealthService #ValueAssessment
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/306286/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/198108/ Nanox.AI Bone Solutions, Advanced AI-Powered Software for Spine Assessment, Recommended by NICE for Early Value Assessment in UK National Health Service hospitals #Éire #FragilityFractures #Health #HealthCare #Healthcare #IE #Ireland #MedicalImagingTechnology #Nanox #NationalHealthService #ValueAssessment

Menopause Added to NHS Health Checks

M…
#NewsBeep #News #Healthcare #AU #Australia #Health #healtheducation/healthcounseling;patienteducation;healtheducationandcounselling;healtheducation/healthcounselling #menopause;menopausalsyndrome #NationalHealthService #NHS #preventivescreening #screening #Stigma #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService #womenshealth;women'shealth
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/238351/

@Nonilex

All the #Republicans have ever had to do to protect their #oligarch donors from #MedicareForAll or a #NationalHealthService is threaten ytpipo with #BIPOC folks getting #Healthcare

It's been working for decades

Is Contrast-Free MRI the Optimal Test for PC?

A twi…
#NewsBeep #News #Healthcare #AU #Australia #biopsy #Cancer #carcinoma #clinicalguidelines #guidelines #Health #malignantneoplasia #malignantneoplasm #Michigan #NationalHealthService #NHS #prostatecarcinoma;malignantprostateneoplasm;prostatecancer;canceroftheprostate #prostatic #scan #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/142109/

My eye was initially drawn to the shape and colour of this rose, then I noticed the name…

The reverse of the tag acknowledges that Aneurin Bevan was the founder of Britain's #NationalHealthService

I might have expected bright red flowers. We'll see what emerges when they bloom

#Rose
#LabourParty

U.K. will do major study of health of transgender youth https://www.byteseu.com/1250988/ #CassReview #GenderAffirmingCare #GreatBritain #HealthCare #MentalHealth #NationalHealthService #Research #transgender #UnitedKingdom #World #wpath #youth

https://www.europesays.com/uk/279983/ The Ethical Minefield of Genetic Testing for All #AlzheimerDisease;Alzheimer's #birth #child #childhood #Children #DNASequence #DNASequencing #ethics #GeneticTesting #Genetics #Genomics;GenomicMedicine #heel #kids #NationalHealthService #neonate #Newborn #NHS #OvarianCancer;MalignantOvarianNeoplasm;OvaryCancer #Pediatrics #PreventiveScreening #Science #screening #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService

https://www.europesays.com/uk/256811/ Doubt Cast on the Need for Long-Term Antidepressant Tapering #antidepressant #AntidepressantDrug #anxiety #AnxietyDisorder #ClinicalGuidelines #Depression #Guidelines #Health #MajorDepression;MajorDepressiveDisorder;UnipolarDepression;ClinicalDepression;MDD;MajorDepressiveDisorder(MDD) #MentalHealth #NationalHealthService #NHS #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService

https://www.europesays.com/uk/154216/ UK Pharmacies Struggle with Severe Creon Shortage #Cancer #CancerOfThePancreas #carcinoma #DrugShortages #Health #MalignantNeoplasia #MalignantNeoplasm #MalignantPancreaticNeoplasm #Medication #MedicationShortages #NationalHealthService #NHS #PancreaticCancer #pancreatitis #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService

https://www.europesays.com/uk/126817/ EMA Changes Azithromycin Use to Combat Antibiotic Resistance #acne #AcneVulgaris #AcneiformEruptions #AntibioticResistance #antibiotics #AntimicrobialResistance #antimicrobials #Europe #European #Health #Medication #microbicides #NationalHealthService #NHS #ResistanceToAntibiotics #ResistanceToAntimicrobials #SkinAndSoftTissueInfection #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService

https://www.europesays.com/uk/123934/ New Genetic Test Could Diagnose Brain Tumours in 2 Hours #brain #BrainTumor #BrainTumour #ClinicalResearch #ClinicalStudies #ClinicalTrials #Genetics #Genomics;GenomicMedicine #HeadAndNeckCancer #HeadAndNeckCancer(HNC) #MalignantHeadAndNeckNeoplasm #NationalHealthService #NHS #PreClinicalTrial #Science #UK #UKNationalHealthService #UKNHS #UKSiteContent;UnitedKingdomSiteContent #UnitedKingdom #UnitedKingdomNationalHealthService

“To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor”: the thread about the Corstorphine Convalescent Home

Corstorphine Hospital may have been shut for over a decade, but it (briefly) made the news earlier this week as a result of a fire in the abandoned building. I had a front-row seat as I happened to cycle past on my way to work; by which time it was fortunately under the control of the Fire Brigade before it had a chance to have properly taken hold.

The building was first opened on 2nd August 1867 as the Convalescent Home for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Five acres of the Meadowhouse Farm had been feud from landowner Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham bt. the previous year, allowing the institution to be set back from the road on a gentle, south-facing slope for the best sunlight and vistas across to the Pentland Hills.

It was a fairly plain building to designs by Messrs Peddie & Kinnear. It originally had 44 beds in two wings, 26 for men and 18 for women, with a service block in the centre that extended to the rear. It was intended to accommodate patients from the Infirmary who were recovering after operations and treatment, for periods of around 3 weeks. It did not however deal with infectious diseases cases, as these were dealt with by separate hospitals. The extended natures of most stays, along with the fact that patients may be paying for the privilege, meant that the standard of accommodation was good; a mix of private rooms and small wards with two or three beds. Space per “inmate” (as the patients were termed) was also very generous in the name of airborne disease control. The decorative stone was brought from Dunsmore Quarry near Stirling with the infill from nearby Hailes Quarry. Heating was by open fires and there was as yet no piped water supply in the district of Corstorphine and so a well was sunk in the grounds.

The new Home allowed the variety of makeshift – and often inappropriate – convalescent houses in the city to be closed and all work centred on a modern building; well staffed by medical professionals, in a pleasant setting on the outskirts of the noise, smells and diseases of the city. It was funded to the tune of £12,000 by an anonymous philanthropic gentleman who did not want his name attached to it. It later transpired that this was William Seton Brown of Prestonpans, a wealthy London-based merchant who had made his money in Bombay and Shanghai. He came from a missionary family in East Lothian and his younger brothers, Alexander and Robert Ebenezer, were doctors who had died early in life in their 20s and 30s.

The inscription above the doorway of the Home read, in Latin, “To the glory of God, for the welfare of the poor, and in memory of most affectionate brothers, the surviving brother caused this house of healing to be built“. This overlooked somewhat that the fourth and oldest brother and also a medical doctor – John Taylor Brown – outlived them all! In its early years the supply of fresh water was an obvious problem as the Home required 4,000 gallons a day, which clearly was a rather ridiculous proposition to try and source from a well. It took until 1878 for the Edinburgh & District Water Trust to pipe a supply in, which Corstorphine village also benefited from. By 1881 the Home had 50 beds, with an average occupancy of 37. 660 patients were being treated per year, with an average stay of 20 days at a cost of 13s 11d per head, per week. The institution was very efficiently run with only a 1.3% management overhead and it’s annual income of £4,491 exceeded expenditure.

In 1892 the Home was closed for a year and a half to extend it to a capacity of 100 beds and provide general improvements. This was made possible by a bequest from local engineer James “Steam Hammer” Nasmyth and saw the corner towers heightened and extension blocks added to each wing and the addition of south-facing balconies at 1st floor level. The original architects were employed, by now known as Kinnear & Peddie.

For some, the quiet and regimented life of the Convalescent Home proved relaxing and recuperative. But it wasn’t to everyone’s taste: many found it an overbearing straitjacket and discharged themselves against doctors orders just to escape. Yet others were told firmly to leave on account of their lasciviousness and drunkenness; while it catered for both men and women, the sexes were kept strictly apart.

In the year 1912, 1,323 patients had stayed at the Home with 925 of those staying for more than 3 weeks. It was found that very few had to return to the Infirmary after their time in Corstorphine, proving the utility of such institutions in freeing up primary hospital beds and aiding in recovery. From 1923 onwards, Corstorphine was joined by the Astley Ainslie Institution in providing convalescent care for the Infirmary. This modern facility was to pioneer long term care, medical supervision and rehabilitation. Little changed at the Corstorphine Home, which remained focussed on the traditional shorter stay recuperation for patients before they returned to their lives. A nod to modernisation came in 1927 when wireless receivers were installed and £80 was raised to provide headphones for patients to listen to the programming. The following year – 1928 – 1,612 patients were treated and the Astley Ainslie fully opened.

Little else changed at the Corstorphine Home in the interwar period, but as the Infirmary found itself treating increasing numbers of older children, small numbers found their way to the Convalescent Home which opened a children’s ward. Those treated by the Royal Hospital For Sick Children were lucky to be sent to its seaside Home in Gullane.

During WW2, like many such institutions it became an Auxiliary Hospital for service personnel. Initially the City was told by the Government that 300 of its 1,000 hospital beds were to be reserved for the military, reduced to 200 later that year. As a public, but charitable, institution, the Home was brought into the fold of the new National Health Service in 1947, remaining attached to the Infirmary. By the 1950s however it was recognised as being hopelessly out of date, described as “resembling a poor law institution of the earlier part of the century“. In addition, its wooden floors were found to be suffering from rot: something had to be done.

Various options were considered and eventually the institution was closed, had its floors reconstructed in reinforced concrete and was thoroughly modernised and refitted by the Regional Health Board into a General Hospital. Corstorphine Hospital, as it would now be know, had 112 beds in large, open wards and its balconies were now enclosed by glass curtain walls. A new nurses’ house was built in the grounds, freeing up internal space, and when it reopened in 1962 it was now certified to provide nursing training. A big change was a move to pre-ordered catering, with patients selecting their food in advance from a menu, rather than the old “take it or leave it” system which often saw it left, to the detriment of patients health. By 1974 changing practices saw it detached from the Infirmary and grouped in with other small district hospitals in the Lothians to provide specialist geriatric convalescent and rehabilitation care.

A threat to the Hospital came in 1990 when it was proposed to close the hospital and potentially use the site for a new Sick Children’s Hospital. It weathered this storm but changing patterns for the elderly in the following decades, which was increasingly provided in patients homes or pushed into the private sector, saw it slowly run down. In 1999 a modern nursing home, Murraypark, was built in the grounds and in 200 the old nurses’ home was demolished and replaced with 30 residential care flats by a housing association. Closure for the hospital finally came in 2014, its founder’s message of “To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor” long forgotten, with Murraypark following in 2016. Plans to demolish the site and replace it with a “care village” came to nothing and in 2019 a plan by Michael Laird Architects was approved to renovate it into 32 flats, with extensions and additions in the grounds for 44 more flats.

Neighbouring Edinburgh Zoo objected to this on the grounds of it being adjacent to the enclosures of their prized pandas (which would later be moved, and later yet moved all the way back to China).
The added complexities of Covid and the economics of the construction industry has meant that nothing has yet come of the housing plans and the building has now lain abandoned for over a decade. That hasn’t stopped the Urbexers getting in though, and their videos show the interior has been thoroughly vandalised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9W2JjCMJeE

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The thread about the Corstorphine Convalescent Home; “To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor”

Corstorphine Hospital may have been shut for over a decade, but it (briefly) made the news earlier this week as a result of a fire in the abandoned building. I had a front-row seat as I happened to cycle past on my way to work; by which time it was fortunately under the control of the Fire Brigade before it had a chance to have properly taken hold.

The building was first opened on 2nd August 1867 as the Convalescent Home for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Five acres of the Meadowhouse Farm had been feud from landowner Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham bt. the previous year, allowing the institution to be set back from the road on a gentle, south-facing slope for the best sunlight and vistas across to the Pentland Hills.

It was a fairly plain building to designs by Messrs Peddie & Kinnear. It originally had 44 beds in two wings, 26 for men and 18 for women, with a service block in the centre that extended to the rear. It was intended to accommodate patients from the Infirmary who were recovering after operations and treatment, for periods of around 3 weeks. It did not however deal with infectious diseases cases, as these were dealt with by separate hospitals. The extended natures of most stays, along with the fact that patients may be paying for the privilege, meant that the standard of accommodation was good; a mix of private rooms and small wards with two or three beds. Space per “inmate” (as the patients were termed) was also very generous in the name of airborne disease control. The decorative stone was brought from Dunsmore Quarry near Stirling with the infill from nearby Hailes Quarry. Heating was by open fires and there was as yet no piped water supply in the district of Corstorphine and so a well was sunk in the grounds.

The new Home allowed the variety of makeshift – and often inappropriate – convalescent houses in the city to be closed and all work centred on a modern building; well staffed by medical professionals, in a pleasant setting on the outskirts of the noise, smells and diseases of the city. It was funded to the tune of £12,000 by an anonymous philanthropic gentleman who did not want his name attached to it. It later transpired that this was William Seton Brown of Prestonpans, a wealthy London-based merchant who had made his money in Bombay and Shanghai. He came from a missionary family in East Lothian and his younger brothers, Alexander and Robert Ebenezer, were doctors who had died early in life in their 20s and 30s.

The inscription above the doorway of the Home read, in Latin, “To the glory of God, for the welfare of the poor, and in memory of most affectionate brothers, the surviving brother caused this house of healing to be built“. This overlooked somewhat that the fourth and oldest brother and also a medical doctor – John Taylor Brown – outlived them all! In its early years the supply of fresh water was an obvious problem as the Home required 4,000 gallons a day, which clearly was a rather ridiculous proposition to try and source from a well. It took until 1878 for the Edinburgh & District Water Trust to pipe a supply in, which Corstorphine village also benefited from. By 1881 the Home had 50 beds, with an average occupancy of 37. 660 patients were being treated per year, with an average stay of 20 days at a cost of 13s 11d per head, per week. The institution was very efficiently run with only a 1.3% management overhead and it’s annual income of £4,491 exceeded expenditure.

In 1892 the Home was closed for a year and a half to extend it to a capacity of 100 beds and provide general improvements. This was made possible by a bequest from local engineer James “Steam Hammer” Nasmyth and saw the corner towers heightened and extension blocks added to each wing and the addition of south-facing balconies at 1st floor level. The original architects were employed, by now known as Kinnear & Peddie.

For some, the quiet and regimented life of the Convalescent Home proved relaxing and recuperative. But it wasn’t to everyone’s taste: many found it an overbearing straightjacket and discharged themselves against doctors orders just to escape. Yet others were told firmly to leave on account of their lasciviousness and drunkenness; while it catered for both men and women, the sexes were kept strictly apart.

In the year 1912, 1,323 patients had stayed at the Home with 925 of those staying for more than 3 weeks. It was found that very few had to return to the Infirmary after their time in Corstorphine, proving the utility of such institutions in freeing up primary hospital beds and aiding in recovery. From 1923 onwards, Corstorphine was joined by the Astley Ainslie Institution in providing convalescent care for the Infirmary. This modern facility was to pioneer long term care, medical supervision and rehabilitation. Little changed at the Corstorphine Home, which remained focussed on the traditional shorter stay recuperation for patients before they returned to their lives. A nod to modernisation came in 1927 when wireless receivers were installed and £80 was raised to provide headphones for patients to listen to the programming. The following year – 1928 – 1,612 patients were treated and the Astley Ainslie fully opened.

Little else changed at the Corstorphine Home in the interwar period, but as the Infirmary found itself treating increasing numbers of older children, small numbers found their way to the Convalescent Home which opened a children’s ward. Those treated by the Royal Hospital For Sick Children were lucky to be sent to its seaside Home in Gullane.

During WW2, like many such institutions it became an Auxiliary Hospital for service personnel. Initially the City was told by the Government that 300 of its 1,000 hospital beds were to be reserved for the military, reduced to 200 later that year. As a public, but charitable, institution, the Home was brought into the fold of the new National Health Service in 1947, remaining attached to the Infirmary. By the 1950s however it was recognised as being hopelessly out of date, described as “resembling a poor law institution of the earlier part of the century“. In addition, its wooden floors were found to be suffering from rot: something had to be done.

Various options were considered and eventually the institution was closed, had its floors reconstructed in reinforced concrete and was thoroughly modernised and refitted by the Regional Health Board into a General Hospital. Corstorphine Hospital, as it would now be know, had 112 beds in large, open wards and its balconies were now enclosed by glass curtain walls. A new nurses’ house was built in the grounds, freeing up internal space, and when it reopened in 1962 it was now certified to provide nursing training. A big change was a move to pre-ordered catering, with patients selecting their food in advance from a menu, rather than the old “take it or leave it” system which often saw it left, to the detriment of patients health. By 1974 changing practices saw it detached from the Infirmary and grouped in with other small district hospitals in the Lothians to provide specialist geriatric convalescent and rehabilitation care.

A threat to the Hospital came in 1990 when it was proposed to close the hospital and potentially use the site for a new Sick Children’s Hospital. It weathered this storm but changing patterns for the elderly in the following decades, which was increasingly provided in patients homes or pushed into the private sector, saw it slowly run down. In 1999 a modern nursing home, Murraypark, was built in the grounds and in 200 the old nurses’ home was demolished and replaced with 30 residential care flats by a housing association. Closure for the hospital finally came in 2014, its founder’s message of “To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor” long forgotten, with Murraypark following in 2016. Plans to demolish the site and replace it with a “care village” came to nothing and in 2019 a plan by Michael Laird Architects was approved to renovate it into 32 flats, with extensions and additions in the grounds for 44 more flats.

Neighbouring Edinburgh Zoo objected to this on the grounds of it being adjacent to the enclosures of their prized pandas (which would later be moved, and later yet moved all the way back to China).
The added complexities of Covid and the economics of the construction industry has meant that nothing has yet come of the housing plans and the building has now lain abandoned for over a decade. That hasn’t stopped the Urbexers getting in though, and their videos show the interior has been thoroughly vandalised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9W2JjCMJeE

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site (including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget) by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur

#Corstorphine #Edinburgh #Health #Hospital #Hospitals #Infirmary #NationalHealthService #NHS #PublicHealth #Written2025

The thread about the Corstorphine Convalescent Home; “To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor”

Corstorphine Hospital may have been shut for over a decade, but it (briefly) made the news earlier this week as a result of a fire in the abandoned building. I had a front-row seat as I happened to cycle past on my way to work; by which time it was fortunately under the control of the Fire Brigade before it had a chance to have properly taken hold.

The building was first opened on 2nd August 1867 as the Convalescent Home for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Five acres of the Meadowhouse Farm had been feud from landowner Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham bt. the previous year, allowing the institution to be set back from the road on a gentle, south-facing slope for the best sunlight and vistas across to the Pentland Hills.

It was a fairly plain building to designs by Messrs Peddie & Kinnear. It originally had 44 beds in two wings, 26 for men and 18 for women, with a service block in the centre that extended to the rear. It was intended to accommodate patients from the Infirmary who were recovering after operations and treatment, for periods of around 3 weeks. It did not however deal with infectious diseases cases, as these were dealt with by separate hospitals. The extended natures of most stays, along with the fact that patients may be paying for the privilege, meant that the standard of accommodation was good; a mix of private rooms and small wards with two or three beds. Space per “inmate” (as the patients were termed) was also very generous in the name of airborne disease control. The decorative stone was brought from Dunsmore Quarry near Stirling with the infill from nearby Hailes Quarry. Heating was by open fires and there was as yet no piped water supply in the district of Corstorphine and so a well was sunk in the grounds.

The new Home allowed the variety of makeshift – and often inappropriate – convalescent houses in the city to be closed and all work centred on a modern building; well staffed by medical professionals, in a pleasant setting on the outskirts of the noise, smells and diseases of the city. It was funded to the tune of £12,000 by an anonymous philanthropic gentleman who did not want his name attached to it. It later transpired that this was William Seton Brown of Prestonpans, a wealthy London-based merchant who had made his money in Bombay and Shanghai. He came from a missionary family in East Lothian and his younger brothers, Alexander and Robert Ebenezer, were doctors who had died early in life in their 20s and 30s.

The inscription above the doorway of the Home read, in Latin, “To the glory of God, for the welfare of the poor, and in memory of most affectionate brothers, the surviving brother caused this house of healing to be built“. This overlooked somewhat that the fourth and oldest brother and also a medical doctor – John Taylor Brown – outlived them all! In its early years the supply of fresh water was an obvious problem as the Home required 4,000 gallons a day, which clearly was a rather ridiculous proposition to try and source from a well. It took until 1878 for the Edinburgh & District Water Trust to pipe a supply in, which Corstorphine village also benefited from. By 1881 the Home had 50 beds, with an average occupancy of 37. 660 patients were being treated per year, with an average stay of 20 days at a cost of 13s 11d per head, per week. The institution was very efficiently run with only a 1.3% management overhead and it’s annual income of £4,491 exceeded expenditure.

In 1892 the Home was closed for a year and a half to extend it to a capacity of 100 beds and provide general improvements. This was made possible by a bequest from local engineer James “Steam Hammer” Nasmyth and saw the corner towers heightened and extension blocks added to each wing and the addition of south-facing balconies at 1st floor level. The original architects were employed, by now known as Kinnear & Peddie.

For some, the quiet and regimented life of the Convalescent Home proved relaxing and recuperative. But it wasn’t to everyone’s taste: many found it an overbearing straightjacket and discharged themselves against doctors orders just to escape. Yet others were told firmly to leave on account of their lasciviousness and drunkenness; while it catered for both men and women, the sexes were kept strictly apart.

In the year 1912, 1,323 patients had stayed at the Home with 925 of those staying for more than 3 weeks. It was found that very few had to return to the Infirmary after their time in Corstorphine, proving the utility of such institutions in freeing up primary hospital beds and aiding in recovery. From 1923 onwards, Corstorphine was joined by the Astley Ainslie Institution in providing convalescent care for the Infirmary. This modern facility was to pioneer long term care, medical supervision and rehabilitation. Little changed at the Corstorphine Home, which remained focussed on the traditional shorter stay recuperation for patients before they returned to their lives. A nod to modernisation came in 1927 when wireless receivers were installed and £80 was raised to provide headphones for patients to listen to the programming. The following year – 1928 – 1,612 patients were treated and the Astley Ainslie fully opened.

Little else changed at the Corstorphine Home in the interwar period, but as the Infirmary found itself treating increasing numbers of older children, small numbers found their way to the Convalescent Home which opened a children’s ward. Those treated by the Royal Hospital For Sick Children were lucky to be sent to its seaside Home in Gullane.

During WW2, like many such institutions it became an Auxiliary Hospital for service personnel. Initially the City was told by the Government that 300 of its 1,000 hospital beds were to be reserved for the military, reduced to 200 later that year. As a public, but charitable, institution, the Home was brought into the fold of the new National Health Service in 1947, remaining attached to the Infirmary. By the 1950s however it was recognised as being hopelessly out of date, described as “resembling a poor law institution of the earlier part of the century“. In addition, its wooden floors were found to be suffering from rot: something had to be done.

Various options were considered and eventually the institution was closed, had its floors reconstructed in reinforced concrete and was thoroughly modernised and refitted by the Regional Health Board into a General Hospital. Corstorphine Hospital, as it would now be know, had 112 beds in large, open wards and its balconies were now enclosed by glass curtain walls. A new nurses’ house was built in the grounds, freeing up internal space, and when it reopened in 1962 it was now certified to provide nursing training. A big change was a move to pre-ordered catering, with patients selecting their food in advance from a menu, rather than the old “take it or leave it” system which often saw it left, to the detriment of patients health. By 1974 changing practices saw it detached from the Infirmary and grouped in with other small district hospitals in the Lothians to provide specialist geriatric convalescent and rehabilitation care.

A threat to the Hospital came in 1990 when it was proposed to close the hospital and potentially use the site for a new Sick Children’s Hospital. It weathered this storm but changing patterns for the elderly in the following decades, which was increasingly provided in patients homes or pushed into the private sector, saw it slowly run down. In 1999 a modern nursing home, Murraypark, was built in the grounds and in 200 the old nurses’ home was demolished and replaced with 30 residential care flats by a housing association. Closure for the hospital finally came in 2014, its founder’s message of “To the Glory of God, for the Welfare of the Poor” long forgotten, with Murraypark following in 2016. Plans to demolish the site and replace it with a “care village” came to nothing and in 2019 a plan by Michael Laird Architects was approved to renovate it into 32 flats, with extensions and additions in the grounds for 44 more flats.

Neighbouring Edinburgh Zoo objected to this on the grounds of it being adjacent to the enclosures of their prized pandas (which would later be moved, and later yet moved all the way back to China).
The added complexities of Covid and the economics of the construction industry has meant that nothing has yet come of the housing plans and the building has now lain abandoned for over a decade. That hasn’t stopped the Urbexers getting in though, and their videos show the interior has been thoroughly vandalised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9W2JjCMJeE

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These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur

#Corstorphine #Edinburgh #Health #Hospital #Hospitals #Infirmary #NationalHealthService #NHS #PublicHealth #Written2025

🧵 4/4

Those in the UK should bear the horrors of the US system in mind when right wingers falsely claim that no other country has a health system like that of the UK's National Health Service.

Don't believe them when they say they want a system like that of the Germans or the Swiss - they want to inflict the US system on us.

#USHealthCare #HealthCare #NationalHealthService #NHS

https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/why-has-the-nhs-not-been-copied-spoiler-it-has#:~:text=Italy%2C%20Spain%20and%20Portugal%20have%20quite%20close,cultural%20and%20political%20climates%20and%20recent%20history.

@ElsaPreme @briankrebs and that is EXACTLY why politicians of both #Conservative and #Labour parties want to privatise the #NationalHealthService.

Three billion dollars a month buys A LOT of politicians.

#Corruption
#DarkMoney

#uk #nhs #nurses #hospitals #britain #healthservice #payrise #wages #doctors #nationalhealthservice
Just a reminder to anyone in the UK government who may happen to come across this. Pay the nurses and doctors anything they want.
When we need them, they’re there. Unlike the politicians who permanently seem to let us down.

NHS ‘Highly Vulnerable’ to Cyberattacks After Major Ransomware Hit, Experts Warn https://thecyberexpress.com/nhs-highly-vulnerable-to-cyberattack/ #NationalCyberSecurityCentre #NationalHealthService #ProfessorCiaranMartin #TheCyberExpressNews #CybersecurityNews #TheCyberExpress #FirewallDaily #NHS

Great news!

I have *finally* managed to acquire some #ADHD #medication

It's only been about 9½ weeks since my last dose.

Not the slow release single tablet I'd prefer, but at least I'm approximately correctly medicated now.

\o/

#mentalhealth #add #adhd #adhdshortage #medicationshortage #ukmedicationshortage #nhs #nationalhealthservice

When you order the #NationalHealthService from #WishDotCom #WHSmith #Wish #NHS #Branding #LogoDesign

Its tiptoeing arrival in the #NationalHealthService(#NHS), first with a one-pound contract and then a 23 million one, has fueled criticism and opposition, embodied in campaigns like
“No #Palantir in our NHS”

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2023/10/02/palantir-technologies-signs-contract-with-popes-hospital/7310592/

How Palantir Became a Front-Runner for the UK’s Multimillion-Dollar NHS Contract - Palantir, the analytics company chaired by Peter Thiel, has courted N.H.S. England with p... - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/world/europe/uk-nhs-palantir.html #governmentcontractsandprocurement #politicsandgovernment #nationalhealthservice #lobbyingandlobbyists #palantirtechnologies #medicineandhealth #davisdavid(1948-) #greatbritain #thielpetera #privacy #england