Medieval Hospitals

When studying hospitals during the Middle Ages it is important not to think about the National Health Service (NHS) and modern Hospitals.  Find out about the origins of the word hospital or look at some old maps of town and cities and see how many have areas called hospital fields.  Look at these words and think about what they mean and their origins; Hospital - Hospitality - Hostel - Hotel.

Medieval Hospitals were often attached to Monasteries and Convents; they provided hospitality and rest; limited numbers offered care for the sick and the level of care they provided was limited.  Their was no consistent approach; each Hospital was independent and did things their own way.  Some were set up specifically intended to care for the sick.  The Lord Mayor of London - Richard (Dick) Whittington set up an eight bed chamber at St Thomas's hospital which was intended for unmarried pregnant women.  However, notice how few beds it had and think about how many unmarried pregnant women there would have been in London.  In London another Hospital was set up to care for poor and silly persons called St Mary of Bethlehem later to become known as Bedlam; an infamous Victorian madhouse.

Hospitals were not run by doctors but nuns and monks.  Each Hospital was different depending on the aims of the Abbot in charge, so it is difficult to generalize.  However, in general they provided rest, warmth, food and shelter. Conditions were clean and for many the combination of food and rest was enough for them to recover.  Simple cures or remedies were also offered; the Nuns would provide herbal cures and the monks and nuns would pray for your recovery.  Whether it worked or not is not the issue - they genuinely believed that praying for your recovery was as important as any other treatment.

When it comes to the exam you could well be asked something similar to the following question:

Describe the key features of the care that was available to Patients in English hospitals during the late Middle Ages.