Astley Ainslie Hospital


The Astley Ainslie Hospital is a community hospital in the Grange area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is operated by NHS Lothian.

History

David Ainslie, who died in 1900, left a sum of money for the purpose of building and endowing a hospital or institution for convalescents from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He wanted it to be called the Astley Ainslie Institution. The hospital opened with 34 beds in 1923. The landscaping of the grounds was executed by Roland Edgar Cooper, just prior to his becoming Head Curator of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Pavilions were added to the east and west in 1929 and a nurses' home was completed in 1930. The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948.
In the 1950s, Colonel John Fraser, while medical superintendent at the hospital, built a collection of ecclesiastical stones, some bearing initials and dates, into a specially constructed stone panel in the south boundary wall of his residence, South Bank. The Charles Bell children's pavilion was completed in 1965 and the Cunningham Unit was completed in 1971. A disabled living centre followed in 1979 and the Balfour Pavilion for older people was completed in 1983.
In 2007 the hospital became the home of the Southeast Mobility and Rehabilitation Technology Centre : the centre was designed to house clinical, technical, office and storage facilities for a range of rehabilitation services. The centre provides 4,000 m2 of space and cost £7.5 million to construct, incorporating a number of environmentally friendly features.
In 2014, the health board considered proposals to demolish the hospital and three others, with a view to replacing these facilities with care villages which would consist of buildings more suited to social care.

Services

The hospital specialises in rehabilitative care for people who have suffered brain injuries, stroke, orthopaedic or cardiac conditions and respite care for elderly people.