Royal Liverpool University Hospital

Royal Liverpool University Hospital
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
Main Entrance and Emergency Department at RLUH.
Geography
Location	Prescot Street, Liverpool, L7 8XP.
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Yes Accident & Emergency; Major Trauma Centre
Beds	850
Speciality	Organ Transplantation, Nephrology, Endocrinology, Ophthalmology, Vascular Surgery, Hepatology, Hepatobiliary Surgery, Orthopaedics, Oncology, Respiratory Medicine, Regional Tropical and Infectious Disease Unit.
History
Founded	1938 as Royal Liverpool United Hospitals; 1978 as Royal Liverpool University Hospital
Links
Website	http://www.rlbuht.nhs.uk

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH) is a major teaching and research hospital located in the city of Liverpool, England. Alongside Broadgreen Hospital and Liverpool University Dental Hospital; the hospital belongs to and operates on behalf of the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and is associated with the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

The Royal Liverpool is the largest and busiest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire, and has the largest emergency department of its kind in the UK.

The current Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH) opened in 1978 and was designed to replace three other city centre acute hospitals that existed at the time — the Royal Liverpool Infirmary on Brownlow Street, the David Lewis Northern Hospital on Great Howard Street, and the Royal Southern Hospital on Caryl Street.

In 1938 the three hospitals, alongside smaller specialist hospitals (including St Paul's Eye Hospital on Old Hall Street) — had administratively merged under the Royal Liverpool United Hospitals group, and it had long been agreed to eventually amalgamate the separate facilities on a central site within close proximity to the University of Liverpool for the purposes of medical education and research. By 1948, the site on which the current Royal now stands (on Prescot Street); was identified for this centralisation as part of the post-war regeneration of Liverpool. However, building on the main hospital did not commence until 1963. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital was designed and constructed by Holford Associates, between 1963 and 1965. Its construction was plagued from the outset by problems of cost, time and quality, together with difficulties over fire certification due to changes in health and safety law whilst building work was ongoing. Eventually, the hospital opened in 1978.