149. St Bartholomew’s Hospital View Day

Fiona and I accepted an invitation from Barts NHS Trust and Barts Charity to attend their View Day earlier this week.

The View Day is designed to acknowledge achievement, reflect on the past and look to the future of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the City of London. First held in 1551, the View Day has never been cancelled even despite two world wars. The event jointly organized by the Hospital Trust and its supporting Charity attracts a wide range of City of London supporters, including this year nearly ninety Livery Company Masters.

The event starts with a Choral Evensong in the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great. This is one of London’s oldest churches having been founded in 1123 as an Augustinian Priory and has been in continuous use as a place of worship since 1143. It survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and bombs dropped in both the First and Second World Wars. (See photographs of Fiona and I in the garden and the exterior of this lovely old Church).

The Livery Company then processed to the Great Hall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where following a wine and canapé reception we heard of the work of the Trust and the Hospital from the Chairmen of both organizations. (See photograph of the interior of the beautiful Great Hall which has the names of financial supporters of the Hospital on its walls, including many Livery Companies).

We were then invited to participate in a tour of the new oncology and cardiac departments. These were both deeply impressive – beautiful new building resembling a large international hotel, dedicated and articulate staff and the latest technology including “Cyber Knife Radiotherapy” (see photograph) which combines automobile industry robots with precise radiotherapy heads (each one costing £2.3m).

This was undoubtedly one of the most impressive visits of our year so far. Many thanks to everyone at the Hospital Trust and the Charity who organized this event.