Selly Oak Hospital was situated in the

Selly Oak Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harbor ...

area of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Previously managed by the

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust provides adult district general hospital services for Birmingham as well as specialist treatments for the West Midlands. The trust operates the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston ( ...

, the hospital closed in 2011.

History

Origins

The site was originally selected for the construction of the new King's Norton Union Workhouse. This was a place for the care of the poor and was one of many workhouses constructed throughout the country following the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The new workhouse, which was designed by Edward Holmes, was built on the site and opened in 1870. A workhouse infirmary, which was designed by Daniel Arkell to a pavilion plan and entirely lit by electric light, was built by Thomas Rowbotham of Small Heath at a cost of £45,000 and opened in September 1897. It provided accommodation for about 300 patients.

Expansion

A new entrance block was completed in 1902 and a large nurses' home which became known as Woodlands was completed in 1908. The workhouse became a home for the chronically sick known as Selly Oak House and the home and the infirmary combined to join the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

as Selly Oak Hospital in 1948. The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine was formed at the hospital and was officially opened by the Princess Royal in April 2001. In March 2007, the families of certain injured servicemen alleged that the hospital was not treating

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

veterans properly. There were also reports of servicemen being verbally abused in the hospital by members of the public opposed to the war. Following a visit to the hospital,

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...

added to the criticism by writing a complaint to the NHS alleging that injured servicemen had no dedicated ward and that they were treated no differently from "a lad who got drunk and smashed his Citroën into a tree". A report published by the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

Defence Select Committee The Defence Select Committee is one of the Select Committees of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, having been established in 1979. It examines the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Ministry of Defence and its associated publ ...

blamed the allegations against the hospital on a smear campaign and praised the clinical care provided to military patients.

Closure and site redevelopment

On 23 May 2010 a 'Service of Thanks' was held at Selly Oak Hospital to celebrate a century of caring and to share memories of the facility. After services had transferred to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Selly Oak Hospital closed in October 2011. On 24 February 2015 the Trust announced that it had exchanged contracts with Persimmon for the sale of the site with outline planning permission for 650 homes.

Notable staff

Geoffrey Gillam Geoffrey Gerard Gillam FRCP (28 January 1905 – 15 February 1970) was a British medical doctor and consultant cardiologist who became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. During the Second World War he was commissioned into the Roy ...

FRCP (1905–1970) was a consultant cardiologist at the hospital.

Notable patients

Those reported to have died at the hospital include: * Simon Evans, author Evans lived in south Shropshire. *

Florence Camm Florence Camm (7 August 1874 – 1960) was a British stained-glass artist, painter and metalworker associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Camm and her brothers, Walter and Robert, took over the management of the family stained-glass busin ...

, artist

References

External links

Official website, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS TrustSelly Oak Hospital free-to-view archive picture gallery of the hospital before demolition
{{authority control Defunct hospitals in England Hospitals in Birmingham, West Midlands Residential buildings completed in 1872 Hospital buildings completed in 1897 Selly Oak Poor law infirmaries