Leeds General Infirmary facts for kids

"LGI" redirects here. For other uses, see LGI (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Old George Street Entrance
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Geography
Location	Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Organisation
Care system	NHS
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Leeds School of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Yes, and Major Trauma Centre
Beds	1103
History
Founded	1771 (current site opened 1869)

Leeds General Infirmary, also known as the LGI, is a big teaching hospital in the middle of Leeds, England. It is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Sometimes people still call it 'The General Infirmary at Leeds'.

The LGI is special because it helps people with very serious injuries. It is a Major Trauma Centre for the region. It also does amazing things like hand transplants. The hospital provides many important services. These include the A&E (Emergency Department), intensive care, and modern operating rooms. There is even a helipad on the roof of the Jubilee Wing. This allows the Yorkshire Air Ambulance to bring patients quickly.

Two new hospitals are being planned for this site. One will be a maternity unit. It will be able to deliver up to 10,500 babies each year. This new unit will help mothers and babies get the best care. It will also make sure they do not need to move between different hospitals. The new hospitals are expected to be ready between 2026 and 2028.

Hospital History
Hospital Buildings
Famous People at LGI
Hospital Services
See also

Hospital History

The very first hospital called Leeds Infirmary opened in 1771. It was located on what is now Infirmary Street in Leeds. The first five doctors at the hospital all studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

Building the current hospital started in 1863. It was designed by a famous architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott. Before making the plans, Gilbert Scott and the hospital's chief doctor, Dr. Charles Chadwick, visited many great hospitals in Europe. They liked hospitals that followed the "pavilion plan." This plan was suggested by Florence Nightingale.

The new hospital had the latest ideas. It had many baths and toilets. It also had special lifts to help nurses move things around. However, the very high ceilings that Nightingale suggested made it hard to keep the hospital warm. Also, the bathroom doors were too narrow for wheelchairs.

The building was finished in 1868. But it did not have any patients for the first year! Instead, it held a big art exhibition. This was to try and get back some of the £100,000 it cost to build. Sadly, even after half a million visitors, they only made £5 profit. The hospital officially opened on May 19, 1869. Prince Albert, who later became King Edward VII, opened it.

The hospital has grown a lot over the years. More parts were added to the building.

The Brotherton Wing opened in 1940.
The Martin and Wellcome Wings opened in the 1960s.
The Worsley Building opened in 1979. This building houses the Leeds Dental Institute and the Leeds School of Medicine.
The Clarendon Wing opened in 1984. It replaced the old Leeds Women's and Children's Hospital. Now, it is home to the Leeds Children's Hospital.
The Jubilee Wing opened in 1998. It was named to celebrate 50 years of the National Health Service (NHS). This wing has new Emergency Department services. It also has regional facilities for heart surgery and brain surgery. It is the main entrance to the hospital.

Hospital Buildings

Victorian Era Buildings

The front of the hospital on Great George Street.

The main entrance used to be on Thoresby Place. But the front of the building on Great George Street was the most decorated part. Gilbert Scott designed it in a Gothic Revival style. It has red brick, stone details, and tall towers.

The original design was like a hospital in France called Lariboisière Hospital. It had a "pavilion" style. This meant the wards had good light and air. There was also a Winter garden in a central glass-covered courtyard. The garden is still there, but the glass roof was removed in 1911.

There are three sections (wings) around this courtyard. The middle section on the south side is the Great George Street entrance. It has a grand porch. Inside, there is a reception hall with a large fireplace. This leads to a corridor with a glass roof. The columns in the corridor have carvings of medicinal plants. The floor is made of mosaic tiles. This corridor leads to a staircase with fancy ironwork and stained-glass windows.

Because the hospital is on a hill, the Great George Street entrance is on a lower level. This level was used for offices and storage. The upper floors were for patient wards. The staircase leads up to the main level of the hospital. This is where the Thoresby Place entrance is, which is the main floor for patients.

In the corridor, there is a clock made by Potts of Leeds. Just a bit further along the corridor, there is a chapel. It is dedicated to Saint Luke and opened in 1869.

Inside the Old Building

The central courtyard garden
The Great George Street entrance hall
The corridor from the entrance hall
The staircase up to the main level
The landing at the top of the staircase
The Potts clock
The Chapel

Other Old Buildings

On the west side of Thoresby Place is the School of Medicine. This building was built in 1893. It has red brick, stone details, and slate roofs. Some of the entrance hall is decorated with special tiles called Burmantofts Faience.

The Nurses' Home, built in 1897, is in a similar style. It is now north of the Brotherton Wing.

The Leeds School of Medicine
The Nurses' Home

Brotherton Wing

The Brotherton Wing

The Brotherton Wing is on Calverley Street. It is made of Portland Stone, matching the Leeds Civic Hall across the road. This wing was a gift from Charles Frederick Ratcliffe Brotherton. It opened in 1940. It was designed in a modern style for its time. It has round balconies at the south end. These were meant for patients to rest and get fresh air. However, with more cars and pollution, this did not happen as planned.

Clarendon Wing

The Clarendon Wing

This building, opened in 1984, is the Leeds Children's Hospital. When it first opened, it replaced an older women's hospital. It was built to be separate from the main hospital. The Clarendon Wing had its own kitchens, labs, and loading areas. It is a separate building made of dark brick and grey slate. It has four floors around a central courtyard. The Leeds Inner Ring Road runs in a tunnel underneath it.

Jubilee Wing

The Jubilee Wing

The Jubilee Wing opened in 1998. It cost £92 million to build. It is a big new part of the hospital on the north side. It also connects the different buildings. It has a new main entrance off Clarendon Way. The building has seven floors. It is made of red brick and white metal. It has a large, curved glass entrance. Outside, there is Jubilee Square. This area has decorative brickwork, flower beds, and sculptures. It also has the helicopter landing pad for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service.

Connecting the old buildings with the new
One of the bridging corridors between buildings
One of the sculptures outside the Jubilee Wing

Famous People at LGI

Many interesting people have been connected to the Leeds General Infirmary:

John Goligher was a world-famous surgeon. He was a professor of surgery at the hospital from 1955 to 1978.
Richard Hammond, a presenter from the TV show Top Gear, was treated here. This was after he had a serious jet car crash in 2006.
Berkeley Moynihan, 1st Baron Moynihan was a pioneer in stomach surgery.
Nancy Roper became a registered nurse at the hospital in 1943. She created a widely used model for nursing care.
Richard Whiteley, who hosted the TV show Countdown, was treated at the hospital. He sadly passed away in 2005 after heart problems.

Hospital Services

The LGI is a very important hospital for serious injuries. It is the main trauma centre for adults and children in West Yorkshire. It is one of the busiest in the UK. It is known for giving top-quality care to patients with very complex and life-threatening injuries.

Heart services are also in the Jubilee Wing. They offer some of the biggest services in the country for special heart valve procedures (called TAVI).

The LGI has a large and busy Emergency Department for adults. Right next to it, there is a separate special area for children up to 16 years old. This children's area is next to the Leeds Children's Hospital. The Emergency Department was even shown live on a TV show called "A&E Live." This show celebrated the NHS's 70th birthday. It gave people a look at how the hospital works.

The hospital is also a regional centre for brain and spine care. This includes services for spinal surgery, brain surgery, and stroke care. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was the first in the UK to use a special imaging system (RapidAI) for stroke patients.

Professor Simon Kay and his team at LGI were the first in the country to perform double hand transplants. This was thanks to their amazing and expert care. In 2016, Chris King was the first person in the UK to have a double hand transplant. In 2018, Tania Jackson became the first woman in the UK to have a double hand transplant.

The pathology labs at the LGI process thousands of samples every day. These labs help doctors understand illnesses. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, even visited these labs. He learned about plans for new funding to improve the lab systems across West Yorkshire.