King's Cross Hospital was opened in November 1889 at Clepington
Road, Dundee. It was the first permanent fever hospital in Dundee for the treatment
of infectious diseases, such as typhus, smallpox, diptheria, etc. Prior to this fever
patients were admitted to ordinary wards at Dundee Royal Infirmary. However the need
for isolation was gradually recognised with the erection of wooden pavilions on the
outskirts of Lochee and also on the site of the present King’s Cross Hospital for the
reception of smallpox and typhus patients between 1867 and 1873. These temporary structures
were demolished with the building of King’s Cross Hospital. Initially there were only two
wards, but by 1913 the hospital had been extended to seven wards plus a variety of ancillary
With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948, the administration of King's Cross
Hospital passed from the Local Authority to the newly formed Eastern Regional Hospital Board.
The Regional Board decided to centralise the management of infectious disease in King’s Cross
Hospital and to close the former fever hospitals in Forfar, Arbroath. King’s Cross thus became
a Regional Hospital for Tayside, admitting patients from Dundee, Angus, Perth, Perthshire,
Kinross and North Fife.
While many bacterial infectious diseases were controlled over the years with the introduction
of immunisation and antibiotics, outbreaks of viral illnesses, such as influenza, hepatitis,
meningitis and AIDS, as well as diarrhoeal illnesses, such as gastro-enteritis and salmonella,
illustrate the changing pattern of infectious diseases.
A new Cubicle Isolation Unit (Ward 9), based on a Swedish prototype, was opened on 5th March
1964. In 1979 King’s Cross Hospital West, the original smallpox hospital was closed and in 1982
Wards 3,4 and 5 were upgraded to accommodate patients with respiratory disease, and geriatric
patients. The construction of a new Out-Patient Department, as well as a Pulmonary Function
Laboratory and an extension of the X-ray Department began in 1988.
(See also Dr. William Maxwell Jamieson’s Collection, Ref. MS111, for further records relating
to King’s Cross Hospital. Dr. Jamieson (1914 - 1994) was Senior R. M. O. at King's Cross Hospital
from 1939 to 1979. He was promoted to Physician Superintendent in 1948 and also headed the University
of Dundee's Department of Communicable (Infectious) Diseases.)
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