** History of Leicester Royal Infirmary **
Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) opened in September 1771. Its founder, the Rev. William Watts, held fund-raisers and appeals to raise £2,200 to build the then 40-bed hospital that later became known as Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Voluntary hospitals were being built all across England at this time. As a voluntary hospital the LRI relied on subscriptions from the city’s rich and good to keep it going.
Burying patients was an expensive business at the time and patients admitted to hospital had to give a deposit - which was returned when the patient went home. If they didn’t go home the money was used to bury them.
The new Infirmary, like the rest of Leicester, had no running water but did boast its own brewery. Alcohol was used as treatments for a whole range of conditions. In 1808 the then 60-bedded hospital recorded that patients consumed 946 pints of wine, 987 gallons of ale, 38 pints of brandy and 14 pints of gin.
Leicester Royal Infirmary employed its first matron – at £10 a year – before Florence Nightingale came back from the Crimean War and the training of nurses really began. In the 18th century, nurses and matrons were generally kindly women who made beds and looked after patients.
