Papworth Hospital was founded at
Papworth Everard (to the west of
Cambridge) in 1918, after a country house had been acquired in 1917 as a
sanatorium for the treatment of
tuberculosis among discharged soldiers who had served in the
First World War, following a campaign led by
Elsbeth Dimsdale, and was initially known as the “Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony”. The institution was initially under the direction of Dr (later Sir)
Pendrill Varrier-Jones. Between 1920 and 1940, the Colony purchased farmland around the village, becoming largest landowner in the parish. From the 1950s, surgical facilities developed, beginning with thoracic (chest/lung) surgery and expanding to cardiac surgery. Surgeon
Ben Milstein performed the first open-heart surgery at Papworth Hospital in September 1958. In August 1979, surgeon
Terence English performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK at Papworth Hospital. The patient, Keith Castle, lived for over five years following his surgery. In February 1980, 23-year-old male nurse Paul Coffey became Britain's thirteenth heart transplant patient, when he was given the heart of a woman who had died in a car crash, by surgeons at Papworth Hospital. In February 1986 Paul Coffey and some of his friends started the 'T' Planters Club which held annual fundraising dinners; the ‘T’ was in recognition of the pioneer surgeon Sir Terence English. In the four years between its founding and its winding up in 1990, the ‘T’–Planters Club raised £109,917. In 1986, alongside a team from
Addenbrooke's Hospital, the world's first heart-lung and liver transplant took place at Papworth Hospital. Surgeons
John Wallwork and
Roy Calne performed the operation on 35-year-old Davina Thompson. In August 1994 a team of doctors carried out a revolutionary operation when 62-year-old Arthur Cornhill was given the world's first permanent battery-operated heart. In May 2014, a new CT scanner was unveiled at the old hospital by its royal patron, the
Duchess of Gloucester. In September 2017, Papworth Hospital was granted the designation “royal” by the Queen and so became Royal Papworth Hospital in January 2018. The hospital was one of the NHS's leading hospitals in the fight against the
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United Kingdom, with some of the best results in the country despite caring for the sickest patients. In 2020, series 3 of the BBC show
Surgeons: At the Edge of Life premiered, with many operations filmed at Royal Papworth Hospital.
New building In December 2013 it was announced that the hospital would move to the
Cambridge Biomedical Campus next to
Addenbrooke's Hospital in
Cambridge. Implementation of the scheme was temporarily delayed, following an intervention by HM Treasury, while the Trust investigated an alternative proposal of moving to the
Peterborough City Hospital site, a concept to which there was considerable opposition given the financial problems at that hospital. In March 2015, the hospital announced that its move to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus was being procured under a
private finance initiative contract. The construction works, which were carried out by
Skanska at a cost of £165 million, started immediately. In April 2019, following the construction of a new hospital, it began its relocation from its previous location in the village of
Papworth Everard to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, treating its first patients in the new hospital on 1 May 2019. The old hospital was home to numerous medical firsts, including the first successful
heart transplant in the UK, the world's first successful heart, lung and liver transplant, and one of the world's first
non-beating-heart transplants. The new hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus treated its first patients in May 2019. It was officially opened by
the Queen on 9 July 2019. Fundraising is also taking place for a Heart and Lung Research Institute, a joint venture between Royal Papworth Hospital and the University of Cambridge, to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus adjacent to the new hospital. ==Services==