City Hospital, Birmingham

City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road Hospital, and still commonly referred to as such) is a major hospital located in Birmingham, England, operated by the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. It provides an extensive range of general and specialist hospital services. It is located in the Winson Green area of the west of the city.

It is slated to be replaced by the delayed Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, with the Treatment Centre and separate eye hospital, the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, remaining on the Dudley Road campus, the rest of which will be redeveloped for housing.

History
The hospital was first built in 1889 as an extension to the Birmingham Union Workhouse (whose entrance building, though derelict, survived until September 2017). It originally comprised a single corridor stretching for a quarter of a mile with nine Nightingale ward blocks radiating from it along its length. The original design was by an architect called W. H. Ward and was designed around a configuration recommended by Florence Nightingale.

It was originally known as the Birmingham Union Infirmary, later Dudley Road Infirmary, before becoming Dudley Road Hospital. One of its notable surgeons, Hamilton Bailey, took the photos for the first edition of his famous textbook while at Dudley Road.



The Birmingham Treatment Centre opened on the City Hospital site in November 2005. This diagnosis and treatment centre replaces the existing Outpatient Department.

Notable staff

 * Marion Caroline Thomas RRC (1877- ), Matron from 1912 until 1925. Thomas trained at The London Hospital under Eva Luckes between 1900 and 1902. After her training she was employed as a Holiday Sister and Matron's Ward Assistant, before becoming matron of the Rutson Hospital in 1910. During the First World War she was also appointed Territorial Force Nursing Service Matron in charge of the military hospital based at the workhouse infirmary: 2/1 Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, between April 1915 and 1919. Thomas was also third Matron of the 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham and resigned  because of ill health in 1925.