Barts is 900!
St Bartholomew’s, our world-leading teaching hospital, is turning 900 years old this year. The centre of excellence for heart and cancer care will celebrate its official birthday on Saturday 25 March and we’ve got lots planned, which you can keep up-to-date with via our official website.
Founded in 1123 by a young cleric, Rahere, St Bartholomew’s has cared for patients through the Black Death, Russian and Spanish Flus and recently, Covid-19.
Our 900th celebrations kicked off in style with a visit from His Majesty The King in November, who met many staff and patients and heard our plans to mark this special anniversary.
We then began our 2023 celebrations with our annual award ceremony to celebrate our Barts Health Heroes finalists, who demonstrate our trust values and show outstanding efforts to go above and beyond for staff and colleagues.
And we’ve got more celebrations planned, including a Foundation Day Service on the official birthday.
To mark this amazing milestone, the Barts900 campaign has launched a series of fundraising projects, many in collaboration with Barts Charity, to expand the world-leading medicine, research and education carried out at the hospital.
These include the development of a breast cancer unit, specifically designed for patients requiring specialist breast cancer and reconstructive surgery and a new state-of-the-art clinical research facility based at The Royal London Hospital.
Available to people across East London, it will provide overnight facilities for those taking part in clinical research and open opportunities to recruit patients from our diverse communities.
Additionally, restoration projects to preserve and develop the hospital heritage for future generations, including work to restore the hospital’s North Wing.
Barts Charity are also looking for potential supporters to help raise income for their public fundraising campaign, which will be launched on 24th March, ahead of foundation day. Keep a look out in our hospitals from that day onwards to see how you can get involved.