Royal National Hospital for Consumption for Ireland

Context

Creator(s): Royal National Hospital for Consumption for Ireland

• Administrative History ↴

  In 1891, at the instigation of Miss Florence Wynn, a provisional committee meet in Dublin with the aim of founding a national sanatorium to treat tuberculosis. The first step in the founding of the hospital was the identification of possible sites. By July 1892 two sites had been indentified, on at Ballycorus, near Shankill, and the other at Newcastle in County Wicklow. Although the medical committee favoured the Ballycorus site, Lady Zetland, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant, threatened to withdraw her support and influence if the Newcastle site was not chosen. Lady Zetland's influence held sway, the Newcastle site was chosen and Miss Wynne resigned in protested. The hospital was opened by Lady Zetland in May 1896, with 24 beds, the numbers rising to 125 by the outbreak of World War One. X-ray facilities were added in 1935 and a modern operating block in 1936. In the early years of the hospitals existence there were strained relationships between the medical staff and the Board of governors, with the medical staff feeling that the board were interfering unnecessarily in the methods of treatment. This came to a head in 1912 when Dr Crofton was appointed visiting physician causing the rest of the medical staff to resign. When Crofton left in 1927, the former medical staff returned on condition they were given representation on the board of governors. By the 1930s the narrow terms of the hospitals original aim, the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis only, was limiting the effectiveness of the hospital. In the 1932 the memorandum of association was changed to allow the hospital to treat all forms of tuberculosis. In the 1950s as the treatment of tuberculosis changed, and fewer sanatorium beds were needed, the hospital again had to consider its aims, the name was changed to the Newcastle Hospital and the types of patients that could be accepted were reviewed. In 1963 the Newcastle Hospital closed.

• Archival History ↴

  Since the closure of the Royal National Hospital for Consumption for Ireland in the 1960s the records of the hospital had remained in the old hospital buildings, they were donated to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2010.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation