By Wilfrid Edgecombe, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.
The history of the Harrogate and District General
Hospital
Harrogate's pride
So ends this "abstract and brief chronicle" of the history of
the hospital from its humble foundation in 1870 up to 1958, a period
of eighty-eight years. To have developed from a tiny cottage
hospital to the present-day, well-built, well-equipped and
well-staffed modern hospital is an achievement of which Harrogate
may be justly proud. What its future will be over the next eighty
years no one would venture to predict. It mainly depends on the
growth of the population of Harrogate and the consequent increased
demand for hospital services.
Immediate projects in hand are the remodelling of the operating
theatre, and the enlargement of the out-patient and X-Ray
departments. Future prospects are the increase in maternity beds by
building another storey on to the maternity block: a new additional
operating theatre; a paying-patients' block: and possibly in the
dim and distant future the building of a third storey on each of the
main ward wings. But these be dreams at the moment.
Moreover there is the bare possibility that by eighty years
hence, in view of the constantly changing ideas on hospital
construction, the whole building might be considered out-of-date
and obsolete. Absit omen!
The latest development under consideration by the Regional Board
is the integration of Scotton Banks Hospital with the Harrogate
General, and the transformation of Scotton Banks from a tuberculosis
hospital to a general hospital under the management of the
Harrogate General. Owing to the remarkable - and welcome - decline in
the incidence of tuberculosis resulting from modern methods of
prevention and treatment, it is no longer an economical proposition
to maintain about 130 tuberculosis patients in a hospital of 300
beds. Accordingly the TB cases are to be transferred to other
sanatoria and the beds occupied by general medical and surgical
cases. Thus the Harrogate General and Scotton Banks would eventually
be regarded as one hospital. This, when achieved, will render
unnecessary certain of the projects set out above.
In conclusion of this history of Harrogate and District General Hospital, some figures relating to its gradual growth
