South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust - History

History

• 1247. The Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem, Bishopsgate, was founded on land given by Alderman Simon Fitzmary. It later became a place of refuge for the sick and infirm. The names ‘Bethlem’ and ‘Bedlam’, by which it came to be known, are early variants of ‘Bethlehem’. It is first referred to as a hospital for ‘insane’ patients in 1403, after which it has a continuous history of caring for people with mental distress.
• 1867. In 1867, the Southern Districts Hospital (or Stockwell Fever Hospital as it became known) opened on the site which is today known as Lambeth Hospital.
• 1908. Henry Maudsley wrote to the London County Council offering to contribute £30k towards the costs of establishing a “fitly equipped hospital for mental diseases.” The Maudsley initially opened as a military hospital in 1915 to treat cases of shell shock and became a psychiatric hospital for the people of London in 1923.
• 1948. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital were merged to form a postgraduate psychiatric teaching hospital. The Maudsley’s medical school became the Institute of Psychiatry.
• 1954. Sister Lena Peat and Reginald Bowen became the first community psychiatric nurses, following up patients at home who had been discharged from Warlingham Park Hospital in Croydon.
• 1997 . The Ladywell Unit, located at University Hospital Lewisham, was refurbished for use by adult inpatient mental health services. The development brought together inpatient services which had previously been spread across other hospital sites (Hither Green, Guy’s and Bexley).
• 1999. South London and Maudsley NHS Trust was formed - providing mental health and substance misuse services across Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; substance misuse services in Bexley Greenwich and Bromley; and national specialist services for people from across the UK.
• 2006. South London and Maudsley became the 50th NHS Foundation Trust in the UK under the Health and Social Care Act 2003.
• 2009. South London and Maudsley is part of one of the five Academic Health Sciences Centres (AHSCs) in the U.K to be accredited by the Department of Health. King’s Health Partners AHSC consists of SLaM, King’s College London, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts.