City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road Hospital, and still commonly referred to as such) is a major hospital located in Birmingham, England, operated by the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. It provides an extensive range of general and specialist hospital services. It is located in the Winson Green area of the west of the city.
The hospital was first built in 1889 as an extension to the Birmingham Union Workhouse (whose entrance building, though derelict, survived until September 2017).[3] It originally comprised a single corridor stretching for a quarter of a mile with nine Nightingale ward blocks radiating from it along its length. The original design was by an architect called W. H. Ward and was designed around a configuration recommended by Florence Nightingale.[4] The first matron was Anne Campbell Gibson, still commemorated with the Ann Gibson meeting rooms in the City Hospital.
It was originally known as the Birmingham Union Infirmary, later Dudley Road Infirmary, before becoming Dudley Road Hospital. One of its notable surgeons, Hamilton Bailey, took the photos for the first edition of his famous textbook while at Dudley Road.[5]
The hospital's 'Birmingham Treatment Centre', in September 2013
The Birmingham Treatment Centre opened on the City Hospital site in November 2005. This diagnosis and treatment centre replaces the existing Outpatient Department.[6]
Notable staff
Anne Campbell Gibson (1849–1926) matron of the Birmingham Union Infirmary from 1888 to 1912 and notable for her contributions to workhouse nursing and pioneering the establishment of infirmaries separate from workhouses and staffed with trained nurses.[7]
Marion Caroline Thomas RRC[8] (1877– ), Matron from 1912 until 1925.[9][10][11][12] Thomas trained at The London Hospital under Eva Luckes between 1900 and 1902.[9][13] After her training she was employed as a Holiday Sister and Matron's Ward Assistant, before becoming matron of the Rutson Hospital in 1910.[14] During the First World War she was also appointed Territorial Force Nursing Service Matron in charge of the military hospital based at the workhouse infirmary: 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, between April 1915 and 1919.[15] Thomas resigned because of ill health in 1925.[15][12]
^ abRogers, Sarah (2022). 'A Maker of Matrons'? A study of Eva Lückes's influence on a generation of nurse leaders:1880–1919' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, April 2022)
^"Notes on News from the Nursing World: The New Matron of Birmingham Infirmary". The Nursing Mirror. 14 (366): n.p. 30 March 1912 – via www.rcn.org.
^"The Hospital World". The Nursing Record . 53 (1372): 59–60. 18 July 1914 – via www.rcn.org.
^ ab"Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham". Nursing Times. 21 (1038): 266. 21 March 1925 – via www.rcn.org.
^Marion Caroline Thomas, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/7, 197; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^Marion Caroline Thomas, Register of Sisters and Nurses; RLHLH/N/4/1, 261; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^ abMarion Thomas, British Army Nurses’ Service Records 1914–1918; WO399/14968; The National Archives, Kew
