The Eastern General Hospital was a health facility in Seafield Street in

Leith Leith (; ) is a port area in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith and is home to the Port of Leith. The earliest surviving historical references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It was managed by

NHS Lothian NHS Lothian is one of the 14 regions of NHS Scotland. It provides healthcare services in the City of Edinburgh (council area), City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian council areas. Its headquarters are at Mainpoint 102 West ...

at its time of closure and prior to that was managed by Lothian Health Board.

History

The hospital was designed by Joseph Marr Johnston and was established in 1907 by Leith Parish Council as the Leith Poorhouse. This replaced both South Leith Poorhouse on Great Junction Street and North Leith Poorhouse on North Junction Street. Although it was built in two sections, a poorhouse section and a hospital section, some sources claim that the poorhouse section was almost immediately converted for medical use. However, this is later contradicted as when the hospital section was requisitioned for military use during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

local newspapers state that the 200 soldiers under care were within the broader boundary of the poorhouse, whose function still continued. An operating theatre and accommodation for nurses was added at this point. In 1931, plans were approved for conversion to a hospital. It joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

in 1948 and developed considerable expertise in

prosthetics In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (congenital disorder). Prosthe ...

before closing in 2007.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in Edinburgh Defunct hospitals in Scotland Hospital buildings completed in 1907 Hospitals established in 1907