The Royal United Hospital: A Social History 1747-1947 [Paperback]

Before retiring from her post as District Medical Librarian at the Royal United Hospital in Bath 1987, Kate Clarke discovered the Hospital Minute Books, which record administration at the hospital from 1827 onwards, in a skip. She rescued them and sent them to the Bath Record Office for safekeeping, and has since spent much of her time researching them. To raise money for charity, she has given many talks on the RUH's early history to local history groups, Townswomen's guilds and to professional medical bodies. This book is the culmination of her work.

"The Royal United Hospital: A social history 1747-1947" describes the day-to-day management of a voluntary hospital with humour and pathos. It shows the changing conditions for patients and staff through the years until the move to Combe Park in 1932, and records the development in standards of nursing care and changes in medical treatment.

The book also shows the part played by the RUH in two major wars, and explains the great efforts of the local community in maintaining this voluntary hospital prior to the introduction of the NHS in 1947.

This book will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in their local hospital, in medical history in general, or in the social history of Bath.

This is a thoroughly researched book (entirely from the primary sources) that will be of interest to all who are interested in medical history, the history and development of hospitals in general, and the Royal United Hospital in Bath in particular.

Introduction

This book tells the story of the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath from its beginnings in 1747 until the introduction of the National Health Service in 1947.

In 1884 it was reported that, due to shortage of space, the earliest records of the hospital had been sold as scrap paper (for which the sum of twenty-seven shillings was received) so there are very few documents covering the first eighty years of its history. Fortunately the minute books of the Management Committee for the years of 1827 onwards were kept and when the hospital moved from the old building in Beau Street the numerous volumes were transferred to the new Combe Park site. When space was limited there in 1987 the minute books and archives, together with other RUH volumes previously kept at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, were sent for safe keeping to the Record Office at the Guildhall in Bath.

Committee notes for any institution, large or small, often contain much repetition or tedious detail and the RUH minute books are no exception. Yet among the pages there are snippets which make it possible for us to picture the wards and learn something about the conditions for patients and the staff who cared for them.

Entries in the later volumes show how social changes in Bath affected the RUH and they also show the efforts made by local people to maintain it as a voluntary hospital before the introduction of the National Health Service.
The majority of quotes in this book are from the minutes and are not specifically referenced. However, enough dates have been given for future researchers to find the relevant entries.