Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital Staff Action Committee

The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital (EGA) was originally founded in 1872 and moved to its Euston Road site in 1889. Its aim was to enable women doctors to practice medicine and to give women the right to be treated by doctors of their own sex.

The future of the hospital was first threatened in the early 1970's due to the General Nursing Council decision to stop training student nurses there. Without subsidised trainee staff, the hospital was hard pressed to keep within its budget. Subsequently the MP Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, agreed to the closure of the EGA but only on the condition that a suitable alternative was found. In March 1976 the hospital lifts and fire escapes were declared unsafe and unsuccessful attempts were made by the Area Health Authority to transfer the functions of the EGA to the Whittington Hospital.

It was against such a background that the Staff Action Committee was set up, with representatives from all sections of the hospital, in an attempt to keep the hospital open and to maintain its objectives.

Between 1975 and 1979 the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Appeal Trust lobbied to save the hospital and raised £900,000 from the public. After the general election in May 1979, the new government reversed the earlier decision and granted £2 million to convert the hospital into a small gynaecological unit, where women could be treated by women. The hospital reopened in 1984 with modern facilities, a new Well Women's service and good operating theatres. In 1982 the hospital came under the control of the Bloomsbury Health Authority, and since 1991, Bloomsbury and Islington Health Authority. Despite closing the Soho Hospital for Women in 1988, the health authority decided in 1992 to close the beds at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and to use the hospital for day surgery only.