Catalogue description Records of the Liverpool Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary

This record is held by Liverpool Record Office

Details of 614 EAR
Reference: 614 EAR
Title: Records of the Liverpool Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary
Description:

1 Committee of the Opthalmic Infirmary Minute Books, 2 vols., 1820 - 1868

 

2 Board of Management Minute Books, 5 vols., 1930 - 1948

 

3 Branch Medical Board Minute Books, 7 vols., 1890 - 1901, 1928 - 1940 1950 - 1954, 1970 - 1978

 

4 House Committee Minutes Books, 8 vols., 1948 - 1969

 

5 Annual Reports, 6 items, 1879 - 1948

 

6 Operations Registers, 7 vol., 1933 - 1968

 

7 Visitors' Books, 4 vols., 1833 - 1928

 

8 Miscellaneous items, 4 items, 1884 - 1971

Date: 1820 - 1978
Held by: Liverpool Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Liverpool Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary

Physical description: 33 vols., 65 items
Access conditions:

Access will be granted to any accredited reader. Permission to consult closed patient records must be obtained from

 

Royal Liverpool University and Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust, Chief Executive, Royal Liverpool University and Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust, Prescot Street, Liverpool, L7 8XP.

 

Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust, Prescot Street, Liverpool, L7 8XP.

Immediate source of acquisition:

These records were deposited by the Area Administrator, Liverpool Area Health Authority (Teaching), 80 Rodney Street, Liverpool L1 9AP in April 1978. Some stray volumes were collected from the Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary in December 1978. Acc. 3131

Subjects:
  • Liverpool
Administrative / biographical background:

In August 1820 the Liverpool Opthalmic Infirmary, supported by voluntary contributions was established by Thomas Christian (? "Christian, Thomas, surgeon, 6 Bold Street" see Gore's Directory of Liverpool, 1821) at 29 Slater Street, a house on the corner of Slater Street and Wood Street. Neill writes that at a meeting called in August 1820 it was stated that "... the poor [of the town] afflicted with diseases of the eye had received for the last six years, very extensive benefit from certain individuals in the profession, who had associated themselves for the purpose of giving gratuitous advice and assistance, in complaints of that nature, on the plan of a dispensary". According to Bickerton, in 1839 the "... Mayor and council very liberally granted this charity a lease, at a nominal rent, of premises at the Harford Street corner of Mount Pleasant..." The new building was larger, lighter and airier and could accommodate in-patients.

 

In 1839 the Ear Institution was founded privately by Hugh Neill, aural and opthalmic surgeon. This was established as a public charity in January 1840 and occupied premises at 5, Mount Pleasant. Hugh Neill served on the staff of both this charity and of the Liverpool Opthalmic Infirmary and he recommended that the two charities should combine. This was agreed "... at a public meeting of the town..." in 1841 and the result of the amalgamation was the Eye and Ear Infirmary, occupying the Harford Street premises. It was in this Infirmary, according to Bickerton that "... chloroform was first used as an anaesthetic in Liverpool".

 

In 1846 the Infirmary moved to larger premises at 90 Mount Pleasant, than which, according to the Liverpool Standard, 19 January 1847, a "... finer or more accessible and airy site could not have been chosen..." There follows a detailed description of the building and its facilities, noting the fact that "... From the yard [the patients] are admitted ... into a Receiving Room, a comfortable apartment ... with benches and forms and ... a good fire ... in the old establishment ... the poor blind or affected in vision ... were necessitated to "bide their time" in the open air ..."

 

The work of the hospital continued to increase and in 1881 it removed to the purpose-built hospital in Myrtle Street where it remained until its closure. In 1932 the hospital became the Eye, Ear and Throat Infirmary. After 1948 eye patients were no longer treated at this hospital and it became the Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary. The hospital was finally closed in 1978 prior to the opening of the new Royal Liverpool Hospital in 1979.

Link to NRA Record:

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