The original concept of a cottage hospital was a small rural building having several beds. Advantages of such a hospital in villages was the provision of care which avoided long journeys to county or voluntary hospitals, facilities to deal more immediately with emergencies and familiarity the local physician might have with their patient that may affect their treatment. This local knowledge of the patient would probably have been lost, had they been referred to their nearest county hospital, as was typical for poorer patients.
Some cottage hospitals still exist today. In particular, several can be found within NHS Grampian, a Scottish region of the National Health Service. More remain in operation in Kirkcudbrightshire, Dumfries & Galloway in Scotland and Norfolk. Some of these are today termed Community Hospital but were founded as Cottage Hospitals and locally are called such.
Read more about Cottage Hospital: Before Cottage Hospitals, History, Examples
Famous quotes containing the words cottage and/or hospital:
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