THERE was little doubt that a major hospital was needed on Glasgow’s south side in the late Victorian era. Living conditions for huge numbers of people there and in other parts of the city were appalling; and the south side itself was home to teeming workplaces that employed many thousands. The first reference to a new hospital for the area was made in 1866, according to an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) history of the Victoria, but it wasn’t until February 1890 that the hospital was opened, by the Duke of Argyll. It had cost £16,880 to build. Between the following November and October 1891, the Victoria admitted 860 patients and carried out no fewer than 261 operations; this despite having an original medical team of two resident doctors and six visiting consultants.
The first two decades recorded considerable growth of the Victoria; in the first year of the First World War it had 260 beds and also had a patient dispensary, an X-ray machine and lab facilities. Further extensions were added in 1925, 1931 and 1935. The photograph above, which dates from 1927, shows a new wing.
The NHSGGC history relates a quote from a consultant, OH Mavor, the dramatist James Bridie: “Almost every year something new was added to the hospital, and these new things were often the first of their kind in Scotland. The Victoria earned the reputation of being an unaggressive, insistent pioneer.”
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