The Bristol Royal Infirmary was founded by public subscription in 1735, making it one of the oldest infirmaries in the United Kingdom. In 1904 Sir George White, who gave Bristol its first electric tramway service and established what was to become the Bristol Aeroplane Company, saved the hospital from debts of over £15,000 by increasing the number of subscribed donors and planning a fundraising carnival at Bristol Zoo. White was appointed president of the hospital in 1906. Recognising the need to modernise the hospital building to keep up with innovations in science and medicine, he established a £50,000 fund for a new hospital building. This led to the construction of the Edward VII Memorial Wing which was designed by Charles Holden and completed in 1912. During the First World War, the Memorial Wing at Bristol Royal Infirmary together with Southmead Hospital were requisitioned by the War Office to create the 2nd Southern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. Geoffrey Tovey, serologist and founder of the UK Transplant Service, worked at the hospital shortly before the Second World War. The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was greatly extended in the 1960s. The Queen's Building extension opened in 1972, the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, located behind the main hospital building, opened in 1971 and the adjacent Bristol Heart Institute opened in 2009.
Redevelopment
In April 2011, the trust board approved an £80 million redevelopment of the hospital, consisting of a new ward block on Terrell Street behind the hospital, the refurbishment of the Queen's building, the conversion of wards in the King Edward building and the decommissioning of the Old Building. In September 2011, it was announced that Laing O'Rourke had signed a contract to redevelop the hospital and build an extension to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. The redevelopment project included purpose-built medical and elderly care admissions units, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit, a surgical floor and a helipad on the roof of the Queen's Building. The redevelopment also included building a new Welcome Centre at the main entrance of the hospital and a new facade for the Queen's building, which was once voted one of the ugliest buildings in Bristol. The new facade was designed by the Spanish firm Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos. Construction began on the new hospital ward block in March 2011, with the demolition of buildings on Terrell Street. The newly completed Welcome Centre was opened to the public in December 2013. In May 2014, the helipad became fully operational and started receiving air ambulances from Bristol and the surrounding area, speeding up transfer times for patients who were being airlifted to the hospital. The HELP Appeal supported the construction of the helipad with a grant of £500,000.
The Bristol heart scandal, which resulted in the deaths of a number of babies and young children during heart surgery led to the Kennedy Report into paediatriccardiac surgical services at the hospital. The report led to greater emphasis on clinical governance within the NHS and the publication of the performance ratings of individual heart surgeons.
Archives
The archives of the Bristol Royal Infirmary are held at Bristol Archives . The School of Nursing , records of surgery and the dispensary and records relating to the 1991 inquiry into children’s heart surgery at the infirmary are also held at Bristol Archives, as well as photographs . A substantial quantity of material about the history of the infirmary can be found in papers collected by the surgeon Richard Smith and .
In popular culture
, which appears in the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City, is based on the BRI.
