21st Century
Images: Matthew Andrews
2004: Breast Care Centre
The dedicated Breast Care Centre opened in the refurbished West Wing at Barts, which also houses a Macmillan Cancer Support Centre.
HISTORY
12th-15th Century 16th Century 17th Century 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century 21st Century2007: New hospital
Construction of new buildings at St Bartholomew’s Hospital started in 2007, with careful consideration to the original Gibbs’ design.
2008: Cancer Medicine Centre
The Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre opened at St Bartholomew’s to fast-track new treatment for cancer patients.
2010: Cancer Centre
The state-of-the-art Cancer Centre at Barts opened in 2010, complementing the existing Breast Care Centre. It included formidable array of state-of-the-art imaging, radiotherapy and radiosurgery technology, ranging from the UK’s first 64-slice time-of-flight PET-CT scanner to the latest generation gamma knife.
2012: Barts Health
St Bartholomew’s became part of Barts Health NHS Trust.
2015: Barts Heart Centre
The Barts Heart Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital opened, bringing together services and staff from The London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green and The Heart Hospital in the West End. The centre has since become the largest Cardiac Centre in the UK and Europe on a single site.
Today, Barts remains a teaching hospital of international renown in the centre of London, on the same site upon which it was founded 890 years ago. Substantial redevelopment has taken place in the past ten years, with the renovation of old buildings and the addition of new ones that pay respect and homage to the Gibbs design of the hospital. The fountain in the quadrangle has also been painstakingly restored after many years of neglect. The medical school continues to thrive as a world class centre for research and both under- and post-graduate education.
The hospital itself continues to treat patients, with inpatient facilities primarily dedicated to cancer and cardiac care, whilst the outpatients department delivers health services to a wide variety of specialties. Partnership opportunities with the neighbouring University College Hospital have also been developed to ensure the future of clinical services in Smithfield, although their precise make-up are yet to be finalised.
The Archives are still present in The North Wing, representing a nine century old repository of medical records and documents relating to everything from 16th Century monarchical despotism to the rise of medicine with social conscience – something demonstrated in earnest by the hospital since its foundation.
The hospital church of St Bartholomew-the-Less, formerly a parish in its own right, is now part of the parish of Great St Bartholomew, together with the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great.
Cock Lane, once home to The Royal College of Surgeons’ building for the dissection of dead criminals is now home to Barts Charity. This charity is independent of but closely allied to the NHS Trust and medical school and tirelessly supports excellence in healthcare by funding research and clinical development projects that the NHS might otherwise not be able to support.
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