| Administrative History | In 1887 Huntly, Aberdeenshire followed the example set by nearby Keith, Moray ten years previously when the decision was made to build a Cottage Hospital to serve the parishes of Drumblade, Gartly, Glass and Cairnie. A Managing Committee of 16, a House Committee of 4 and a Medical Committee of 4 (Doctors Wilson, J O Wilson, Gardon and Thomson) were established and on 4 December 1889 the first patient was admitted to the Hospital, named in honour of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
At the start of the First World War 15 beds in the General Hospital were put at the disposal of the War Office for the treatment of wounded and invalided soldiers. On 5 October 1916 the Cottage Hospital, with the exception of the Fever Block, was handed over to the Red Cross, civilian patients being treated in Scott's Hospital, a hospital for the elderly. On 15 April 1918 the patients there returned and in January 1919 Huntly Jubilee closed as a Red Cross Hospital.
Extensive alterations and reconstructions, including a new Isolation Pavilion built by the Local Authorities, were completed in 1927 and in 1938 a Day Room was added to the General Block. As early as 1945 alterations were needed: the Isolation Pavilion was converted for maternity use in that year and the Emergency Unit was converted for geriatric use in 1947. Finally, in 1965, the Hospital was upgraded and a Health Centre added.
Under the terms of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI, c.27), Huntly Jubilee Hospital became, in 1948, part of the West Aberdeenshire Hospitals Board of Management. On the dissolution of that Board in 1964 it joined the Banffshire Hospitals Board and then, in 1974, became part of the North District of Grampian Health Board. A 'Friends' group was formed in 1993, and in 1994 a plaque was unveiled in the main foyer to mark completion of a £2.4m upgrading. |