St. James's Hospital

For the Leeds hospital, see St James's University Hospital, Leeds.

St. James's Hospital
Picture of South Circular Road (Dublin) entrance to St. James's Hospital South Circular Road entrance to St. James's Hospital
Geography
Location	Dublin, Ireland
Coordinates
Organisation
Care system	HSE
Funding	Public hospital
Hospital type	Voluntary university hospital
Affiliated university	Trinity College, Dublin
Services
Beds	1010
Links
Website	http://www.stjames.ie/

St. James's Hospital (SJH; Irish: Ospidéal Naomh Séamas) is the largest university teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Its academic partner is the University of Dublin, Trinity College. The Trinity Centre was opened in 1994 and it incorporates the clinical departments of Trinity's Medical School, Unit for Dietetics and Nutrition, Nursing School and the library of the Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as the William Stokes Postgraduate Centre.

History

Dublin Corporation paid £300 in 1603 for a foundation stone for a poorhouse on the site now occupied by the hospital.

The war between William III and James II intervened and work was abandoned until 1703, when Mary, Duchess of Ormonde, wife of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde laid the stone.

Several distinguished citizens served on the board of the hospital when it opened in 1727, including Arthur Guinness and Dean Swift. The hospital was closed in the early years of the 19th century and the buildings were used as a workhouse and known as the South Dublin Union. The workhouse infirmary, which originally catered for sick inmates only began to take on an increasingly active role as an infirmary for the sick poor. Some extremely competent physicians worked here at that period including Robert Mayne, a radiological expert.

In 1916, the South Dublin Union was occupied by rebel forces and during the fighting a member of the nursing staff was accidentally killed. The hospital continued to develop as a municipal hospital following Irish independence and the name was changed to St Kevin's Hospital.

Later in the 20th century plans were made to amalgamate some of the so-called "Federated Dublin Voluntary Hospitals" to build a new St. Kevin's, which became known as St. James's in 1971.

Several small Dublin hospitals were closed or changed their functions in the 1980s including Mercer's Hospital, Sir Patrick Dun's, Dr Steevens' Hospital and the Royal City of Dublin Hospital, Baggot Street. Most of the services provided by these hospitals were incorporated into the new St. James's.

The 'new St James Hospital' opened in the early 1990s over stages. Prior to this the hospital was located in a variety of buildings on the site each called by a specific building name (hospital 1-7). Some units such as Hospital 5 and hospital 2 remained functional after the transfer to the new hospital and they continue to provide in patient care. Hospital 5 used to contain the midwifery department which closed in the 1980s and many older female patients admitted to the medical wards of Hospital 5 recounted how they had delivered their children in the same building many years previously. Other buildings such as hospital 1 changed function moving from providing inpatient care (hospital 1: oncology/cardiology/medical) to providing administration or day care services. Hospital 3 (a nice building which still had bullet holes in its walls from the Easter Rising) was sadly knocked down in the early 1990s (for parking). The school of nursing/Nurses Home building became administrations offices with the main teaching room becoming the Board Room. The current main hospital canteen was a former surgical ward.

The hospital played a key role in the great influenza outbreak of 1918 with many of those who died in the outbreak reported to be buried in a mass grave close to the South Circular Road Entrance. An elderly patient who was admitted to the hospital in the early 1990s who had worked as a young teenager in the hospital recounted terrible scenes as the hospital struggled to cope with the patient load during the outbreak.

In the late 1980s early 1990s the hospital was the first facility in Ireland to provide dedicated services to patients affected by HIV. At this early stage of the outbreak there was often little to offer in terms of treatment and many often very young people some of whom were from the local community died of HIV related infections in the hospital during this time. In recent years most HIV services in the hospital are now provided on an outpatient basis with much more positive treatment options available to patients which is a change from the early stages of the outbreak.

Key activities

• Centre for Advanced Clinical Therapeutics
• Dementia
• Irish Cancer Data Association
• National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics
• National Medicine Information Centre
• Wegener's Granulomatosis Handbook
• Diabetic Day Care centre
• National Adult Bone Marrow & Stem Cell Transplant Unit
• National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders

Trinity Centre for Health Sciences

The first phase of the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences at St James' Hospital was opened in 1994 to provide teaching and library space, a staff/student common room and accommodation for academic clinical departments. It also houses the hospital school of nursing and the William Stokes Postgraduate Centre for continuing medical education. A second phase was opened in 1998 housing the School of Physiotherapy, the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, the Haughton Institute for Postgraduate Education in the Health Sciences, the Department of Medical Gerontology and Faculty Administration. Development of the site is continuing.

The Trinity Centre for Health Sciences contains:

• Department of Clinical Medicine
• Department of Medical Gerontology
• Department of Surgery
• Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics
• Department of General Practice
• Department of Psychiatry
• Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• John Stearne Medical Library
• The St James's Hospital School of Nursing
• The William Stokes Postgraduate Centre for continuing medical education
• The School of Occupational Therapy
• The School of Physiotherapy
• School of Therapeutic Radiography
• The Trinity College School of Nursing and Midwifery
• The Haughton Institute for Postgraduate Education in the Health Sciences
• The Central Pathology Laboratory contains:
• Department of Clinical Microbiology
• Department of Histopathology and Morbid Anatomy
• Department of Haematology
• Department of Clinical Biochemistry

New clinical research centre

Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre coordinated a successful bid to the Wellcome Trust for a major clinical research centre to be led by Professor Dermot P. Kelleher comprising two elements:

• A new centre will be built at St James's Hospital.
• A network of new clinical research facilities linking the proposed new centre to existing centres at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, St. Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

National children's hospital to be built on St James's site

6 November 2012: "The Cabinet has given the go-ahead for a new €500 million national children’s hospital on the St James’s hospital campus in south Dublin city."

External links

• Official website
• Trinity College, Dublin

Preceding station		Luas		Following station
Heuston towards Connolly or The Point		Red Line		Fatima towards Tallaght