St Thomas's Hospital Medical School

In 1842 the Governors of St Thomas's Hospital stepped in to rationalise and improve the medical school's status, taking responsibility for the management of the school until 1858. The School's finances and administration was radically re-organised. A medical school fund was established and administered by the Hospital Treasurer to pay for the general running costs of the school, including the salaries of the non-teaching staff. A Medical School Committee was created to govern the school, appoint lecturers and oversee expenditure. The first Dean, Dr Henry Burton, was appointed in 1849, and the School began to take on a formal corporate identity. In 1858, management of the school was restored to the physicians and surgeons and in 1860 to the teaching staff, as the school had become self-financing. With the establishment of the National Health Service the medical school became a separate corporate body in 1948 and one of the general medical schools of the University of London.