The Rotunda Hospital (;
History
The hospital was founded by Bartholomew Mosse, a surgeon and
midwife who was appalled at the conditions that pregnant women had to endure, in George's Lane in March 1745.
[Kirkpatrick, p. 7] It was granted by royal charter on 2 December 1756 by King George II.
is an archaic term for childbirth (referring to the month-long
bed rest prescribed for postpartum confinement).
The venture was very successful and Mosse raised money through concerts, exhibitions and even a lottery to establish larger premises.
[Kirkpatrick, p. 25]
The hospital moved to its current premises in 1757, designed by Richard Cassels,[Kirkpatrick, p. 35] The Church of Ireland Chapel was opened in 1762.
Records indicate that around 1781, "when the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease; and that after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same, in five succeeding years, was reduced to one in twenty".[ Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org).] This issue was not limited to the Lying-In-Hospital. In that era, ventilation improvement was a general issue in patient care,[ Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)] along with other issues of sanitation and hygiene, and the conditions in which surgeons such as Robert Liston in Britain and elsewhere, had to operate.[ p.43][ in Gordon, R. (1983), p.147.] Florence Nightingale famously worked on the design of safe and healthy hospitals.
The first caesarean section in Ireland was undertaken at the hospital in 1889.
Rotunda
The eponymous
Rotunda, designed by James Ensor,
[ was completed just in time for a reception hosted by James FitzGerald, Marquess of Kildare in October 1767.][Kirkpatrick, p. 68]
The extensive Rotunda Rooms, designed by Richard Johnston and built adjacent to the rotunda, were completed in 1791.[Kirkpatrick, p. 104] By the early 19th century the hospital had become known as the Rotunda Hospital, after its most prominent architectural feature.[Kirkpatrick, p. 198] The Rotunda became a theatre, where the Irish Volunteers' first public meeting was held in 1913, and later housed the Ambassador Cinema. The Rotunda Rooms now house the Gate Theatre.
Architecture
Patrick Wyse Jackson, curator of the Geological Museum in Trinity College, assessed the building in 1993 as part of his book "The Building Stones of Dublin: A Walking Guide" with the following remarks:
- "The walls of the current building dating from 1757 are faced with Leinster granite and Kilgobbin granite... The former building was executed in Portland stone and Leinster granite, to which a sculptured frieze of Bucranium and other panels were added. These are interesting as they are made of Coade stone, a fashionable artificial stone used widely in the late 1700s." The Rotunda or "round room", and the buildings now occupied by the Gate Theatre were later additions.
Services
The Rotunda Hospital, as both a maternity hospital and also as a training centre (affiliated with Trinity College Dublin)
Criticism
In 2000 the Rotunda Hospital was one of two Dublin maternity hospitals found to have illegally retained organ tissue from babies without parental consent. The tissue removed in post-mortem examinations was retained for some years. The Rotunda hospital admitted that permission should have been sought for this process to be allowed to take place.
A medical negligence award was approved in 2020 for a young boy who developed cerebral palsy as a result of complications with his delivery at the hospital in 2004.
See also
-
General Lying-In Hospital, London
Sources
External links
