Kingston Public Hospital

Kingston Public Hospital was first opened on 14 December 1776.^[1] However, the institution was officially ratified on 21 December, 1776, when the Jamaica Assembly passed an Act (17 Geo. III c. 26) establishing the hospital.^[2][3] The hospital was originally located at the intersection of East and North Streets in Kingston, where a small hospital designated for slaves was converted into a male hospital and an old slave compound was converted into a female ward. Initially, KPH only treated patients from Jamaica’s white population, while the black slave population were treated on sugar plantations in what was then referred to as "hot houses" until emancipation in 1838, after which they began to be accepted by the hospital. Originally, KPH was designed as an almshouse as well as a hospital, and later became a mental asylum. However, the asylum was relocated to Rae Town, St Andrew in 1850, where it eventually became the Bellevue Hospital.^[4] In 1859, KPH began offering 24-hour service seven days per week. In 1936, the then Senior Medical Officer, Dr Arthur Westmorland, separated surgical from medical cases for the first time. Four new operating theatres were built in 1962, in addition to the two previously built in 1928. In 1963, the KPH paediatric ward was transferred to the premises of the former British Military Hospital to establish the Bustamante Hospital for Children.^[5] Since then, KPH has evolved into the largest multidisciplinary hospital in the Government Health Service as well as the largest trauma centre in the public hospital system.^[6]