Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth

The Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood, London, England, is a health facility and charity in north London.

Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth
Roman Catholic affiliation
Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth
Location in Westminster
Geography
LocationLondon, NW8, United Kingdom
Coordinates51°31′58″N 0°10′27″W
Organisation
TypeIndependent charitable hospital
Services
Emergency departmentUrgent care centre
Beds70+
History
Opened1856 (1856)
Links
Websitehje.org.uk
ListsHospitals in the United Kingdom

History and operations

The hospital was founded in 1856 with a Roman Catholic affiliation and is a registered charity.[1] It was founded as the "Hospital of St. Elizabeth" by the Duke of Norfolk. Originally located in Great Ormond Street, London, by the end of the 19th century it had relocated to St. John's Wood and adopted its present name.[2] The chapel which once laid on Great Ormond Street was moved brick-by-brick to its new site at the Hospital in St John's Wood.[3]

At its founding, the hospital was entrusted to the care of the Sisters of Mercy, which would continue for many decades to come;[2][4] more recently, however, the Sisters of Mercy have withdrawn from the management of the hospital, and it is now under lay control.[4] The hospital closed temporarily in 1866 due to a lack of funds, but later reopened.[5] The hospital was vital during the war effort of both World War I and World War II, being used by the War Office to treat injured military personnel.[3]

In 2009, it had an income of £42,671,000, making it one of the 150 largest charities in the United Kingdom.[6]

The hospital came to media attention in late 2007 when two board members resigned in protest after a new code of ethics, issued by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, was accepted by the board. The new code "bars doctors from offering any service which conflicts with Catholic teaching" including "sex-change operations, providing contraception, abortion referrals and IVF treatment.".[7] Later in 2008, the Cardinal ordered the resignation of the remaining board members and installed Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank as chairman. It was reported that Jacob Rees-Mogg resigned but Aida Hersham did not.[8]

Facilities

Hospital facilities include five theatres, and en-suite bathrooms in all of the patients' rooms. It is also the home to British Athletics, which established its medical HQ at the Hospital to care for track and field athletes.[9] The hospital employs over 600 doctors.[9]

St Andrew's Ward, a new £2.1 million 10-bed stroke and medical ward, opened in July 2016, bringing the total number of beds to over 70.[10][11]

St John's Hospice

The hospital's profits from private healthcare are used to run St John's Hospice, a hospice located within the hospital site where over 3,000 terminally ill patients are treated each year.[9]

See also

References
  1. Charity Commission. SS. John and Elizabeth Charity, registered charity no. 235822.
  2. "Medical News". British Medical Journal. 1 (4968): 697–698. 24 March 1956. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4968.697. PMC 1979297. In 1856, immediately after the Crimean War, the Hospital of St. Elizabeth was founded in Great Ormond Street, London, by the then Duke of Norfolk. The management was entrusted to the Sisters of Mercy, four of whom had served under Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. At the end of the century the hospital moved to its present site in St. John's Wood, having earlier changed its name to 'St. John and St. Elizabeth'.
  3. "History of the Hospital - Hospital Of St John & St Elizabeth". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  4. O'Gorman, Kevin; Conti, Archbishop M. J.; McAlpine, D. (2008). "Hospitality in necessitudine: hospices, hostels and hospitals" (PDF). Hospitality Review. 10 (2): 28–35. ISSN 1464-9101. Retrieved 14 May 2016. Until recently several religious orders provided hospitals in Britain though the last surviving Catholic hospital in London, established and served by the Sisters of Mercy, is now under lay control—the hospital of St John and St Elizabeth...
  5. The Medical Times and Gazette, J. & A. Churchill, 1866, p. 405, The Roman Catholic Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, Great Ormond-street, which was founded in 1856, has just been closed by the unanimous resolution of the Committee. Want of funds was the ostensible reason for closing it.
  6. Charities Direct: Top 500 Charities - Income Archived 16 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Charities Direct.
  7. Butt, Riazat (7 December 2007). "Directors quit Catholic hospital in ethics code row". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  8. Butt, Riazat (22 February 2008). "Archbishop orders Catholic hospital board to resign in ethics dispute". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  9. hje.org.uk HJE Official website. Retrieved 20 July 2015
  10. "State Of The Art St Andrew's Ward Now Open - Hospital Of St John & St Elizabeth". 18 July 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  11. "Accommodation & Facilities - Hospital Of St John & St Elizabeth". Retrieved 12 August 2016.
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