| Administrative History | A cottage hospital for Peterhead, Aberdeenshire was first proposed in 1919 by Dr James Smith as a War Memorial. The idea was opposed, chiefly on the grounds of cost, and it was not until 1939 that a Cottage Hospital was eventually opened.
Previous to this, in 1930, the John Davidson Buchan Fund had been established, in which £1,000 was to be held by Trustees for twenty years to be used to help erect and equip a hospital. Later, in September 1934, Mr William B Shewan of Eastburn, transferred £5,000 to the Town Council of Peterhead to establish a hospital, providing that it was done within five years. This was the impetus that the town needed and, with the help of further donations, a house was bought in Links Terrace, converted and opened as Peterhead Cottage Hospital on 19 August 1939.
The hospital initially contained 16 beds but a month later the accommodation had risen to 20 beds and 3 cots, and by the end of the year there were 35 beds and 3 cots. In November 1939 the operating theatre was completed, and in the following year an anaesthetist's table was gifted to the hospital by Mr & Mrs G S May. It was only in 1941, however, that portable X-ray apparatus was acquired, and, because of war-time restrictions, X-ray examinations had for several years to be carried out in the entrance hall of the hospital. In 1942 an X-ray table was purchased from Dr Findlay, but still permission could not be obtained from the Department of Health to build an X-ray room.
In 1948 it was decided to alleviate the problem of accommodation by purchasing a Nurses' Home, and in June "Glebefield" was bought at a cost of £3,000.
In that same year the Cottage Hospital was taken over by the National Health Service and became administered by the East Aberdeenshire Hospital Board of Management, which in 1964 was absorbed into the Buchan Hospitals Board of Management. From 1971 to 1974 this became the Banffshire and Buchan Board of Management, and from 1974 the hospital was part of North District of Grampian Health Board.
In 1961 the foundation stone of the Maternity Unit was laid, and in 1962 this was opened by Princess Margaret. In 2001 Peterhead Cottage Hospital, by then renamed as Peterhead Community Hospital, was still functioning as a GP Medical and Maternity Hospital. |