About the Cancer Centre

The Edinburgh Cancer Centre delivers haematology and non-surgical oncology including radiotherapy and Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) for adult patients from a catchment of 1.4 million people  across the South East of Scotland. Breast surgery, specialist hospital based palliative care and supportive care are also provided with some referrals received from other Health Boards for specialist services.

Specialist radiotherapy services are provided for paediatric patients whose care is otherwise managed by Paediatric Oncologists and Haematologists at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP). The Centre also provides the national Benign Intracranial Stereotactic Radiotherapy Service.

Where possible, assessment and diagnosis are undertaken locally in the NHS Board of the patient’s residence however some regional patients will be referred to NHS Lothian for clinical assessment and diagnosis of suspected cancer. Some treatment services (such as radiotherapy, highly complex systemic anti-cancer therapy provision and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials) are exclusively provided by NHS Lothian.

With the exception of Breast Surgery (which currently sits within the existing Edinburgh Cancer Centre footprint), Surgical Oncology is provided by Surgical Services across NHS Lothian with regional and national service provision in place for selected specialties

The Western began not as a hospital, but as a poorhouse, for the parish of St Cuthbert’s. It was opened in 1761, on the site of what is now the Caledonian Hotel, at the west end of Princes Street. The poorhouse included a school for orphans, teaching them a trade in the hope that it would lift them out of poverty.

But by the 1860s, there were concerns about the unsanitary conditions at the poorhouse. Henry Littlejohn, the City’s Medical Officer, ordered improvements. It was proposed that St Cuthbert’s merge with two other poorhouses, Craiglockhart and Canongate. But St Cuthbert’s decided against such a move, and instead opened a new facility, Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse, in 1868.

The hospital continued to care for the poor until 1914, when it was requisitioned by the Army to treat casualties from the First World War. In 1929, parish councils were abolished, and ownership of the poorhouse and hospital was transferred to Edinburgh Town Council in 1930.

The council decided to upgrade the facilities and equip Craigleith as a teaching hospital with 280 beds, with the new name of the Western General Hospital.

During the Second World War, hospitals were not flooded with casualties as had been the case in the first conflict. But in 1941, a number of medical specialists and students from the Polish Army arrived in Britain. The exiled president of the Polish Republic officially instituted the Polish School of Medicine in Edinburgh, and part of the Western General was set aside as the Polish, or Paderewski, Hospital, with 120 beds.

Medical students trained at the Paderewski Hospital throughout the Second World War, with the last graduates leaving in 1949.

A Modern Hospital

After the war, the Western General began to build up a reputation not only for providing general medical and surgical services, but also for a number of specialist units, including heart disease, gastrointestinal medicine, radiotherapy and neurosurgery.

Today the hospital, which cares for 150,000 patients a year, is home to the regional centre for cancer treatment for the south-east of Scotland, providing specialist care to a catchment of 2.4 million people.