| Administrative History | Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen was originally Oldmill Poorhouse. Until the abolition of Parish Councils under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929 and the amalgamation of their functions with those of Town Councils, Aberdeen Parish Council was responsible for the care of sick and destitute paupers in the City. The poorhouse at Oldmill was built to replace two existing poorhouses (St Nicholas and Oldmachar) and opened in 1907, paupers being transferred there on 14 and 21 May. In addition to the poorhouse there were two hospital blocks - a general block and a special block with accommodation for 220 and 164 cases respectively. During the First World War, between May 1915 and June 1919, Oldmill was evacuated and used as a military hospital, the patients and ordinary inmates being sent to other hospitals and poorhouses in the area. The Parish Council resumed occupation in 1919 but the special block lay unused for several years. By the mid 1920s the scarcity of general hospital accommodation in Aberdeen led the Town Council to negotiate for the transfer of the hospital buildings at Oldmill to their jurisdiction. This was duly accomplished and in 1927 Woodend Municipal Hospital was formally opened.
Woodend was used as a general hospital by the Corporation and from the late 1920s it also treated patients from the Infirmary's waiting lists. The special block was set aside for the treatment of non-pulmonary tuberculosis, pneumonia and similar cases. On the outbreak of World War II the poorhouse inmates were evacuated to the Central School and the whole complex at Woodend given over to the Emergency Hospital Service. In 1940 a hutted annex containing 200 beds was built for military sick and wounded and these wards remained in use after the war.
Under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI, c.27), Woodend became part of the NHS, being administered, from 1948, by the Aberdeen General Hospitals Board of Management. Oldmill Home, the poorhouse, remained with the Corporation as it was felt that the accommodation was being used mainly for public assistance cases rather than for health purposes. Almost immediately, however, the North Eastern Regional Hospital Board began negotiations to buy the Home from the Corporation as space was urgently required for chronic sick patients. This purchase was effected in 1951 (although it was not until 1959 that the whole building could be used by the NHS) and Oldmill was renamed Glenburn Wing, caring for geriatric patients.
Woodend remained a general hospital, and in the 1950s the ophthalmic wards were transferred from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to Woodend. The plastic surgery unit was also based at Woodend from its inception in 1969 until 1986. In 1989 the name Glenburn Wing was dropped, the whole complex being known as Woodend Hospital. Later that year the ophthalmic wards were moved back to Foresterhill and shortly afterwards the whole annex was emptied and the buildings demolished.
A major programme of redevelopment and refurbishment followed. A new purpose-built unit for elective orthopaedic surgery was opened in November 1993 and a stroke rehabilitation centre opened May 1995. The former special block was demolished in the same year to make way for an orthopaedic out-patient clinic which opened in March 1996. From 1 April 1993 the hospital was administered by Grampian Healthcare, one of the three NHS Trusts in Grampian.
*Note - there is a list of patients in Oldmill Hospital who were in receipt of poor relief from Aberdeen City Parish as at 15th May 1922 held at Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives under reference C/16/3/1* |
| Description | Registers, including admissions and discharges, 1927- 1960; Operation/anaesthetic registers, 1927-1970; Salary and wages books, 1927 - 1956; Tuberculosis registers, 1927 - 1956; Patient statistics, 1927-1970; Visitors report book, 1929-1951; Post mortem book, 1953; Registers of probationers, 1927-1954; Staff registers, 1927-1961; Paintings and photographs of buildings and staff, aerial photographs, etc., 1930 - 1950; Photos, c1907-1950. |