National Hospital of Sri Lanka

In 1817 Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals Charles Farell recommended to the British Governor Robert Brownrigg that a hospital for the poor be established.[5][6] Thus Colombo's first modern hospital was established in 1819[lower-alpha 1] at Prince Street in Pettah.[5][7] The hospital had 100 beds but demand was so high the hospital became overcrowded and a decision was taken to build a news hospital at a 32-acre cinnamon land in Longden Place.[5][7] Governor Henry George Ward's administration set aside £3,000 to establish the hospital.[7] The new 200 bed General Hospital opened in 1864.[5][7][8]

The hospital had 21 wards in 1864.[5] When the Colombo Medical School was established in 1870 it was based at the hospital's female surgical ward.[9] In 1875 Mudaliyar Samson Rajapakse gifted three and a half acres of land on which Colombo Medical School's successor, the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, stands today.[5][9] The hospital became the first in the country to employ female nurses with the arrival of an English nurse in 1878.[10] The hospital found it difficult to recruit nurses locally so the hospital authorities requested the help of Catholic nuns who served in the hospital from 1886 to 1964.[7][11]

The hospital had 22 wards and 212 beds, 112 for the medical unit and 100 for the surgical unit, in 1885.[10] By 1894 hospital had 24 wards and 280 beds.[10] Longden Place was named Kynsey Road in 1900.[5][10] The Victoria Memorial Building (eye ward) and the White House (administration building) were opened in 1903 and 1904 respectively.[3][7][12][13] The first out patient department was founded in 1910 (now it is the main x-ray unit).[4][7][14] Overcrowding at the hospital resulted in an annex being opened at Ragama for elderly and chronically-ill patients but a cholera outbreak in 1912 resulted in these patients being transferred back to the Kynsey Road site.[7]

Governor William Manning opened Merchant Ward (currently Ward No. 15) in October 1918.[14] The Skinner Memorial Ward was established and adjoining it the Gnanasekaram Ward was built in 1924.[14] These two wards are currently known as Ward No. 16.[14] Physiotherapy and rheumatology units were added in the 1920s[14] A private home on Ward Place was converted into a dental clinic in 1925 and the radiology unit was established in the administration building in 1926.[15] The Marque Memorial Ward was established in 1938 for the Catholic nun nurses whilst the Coudert Memorial Ward was established in 1941 for Christian clergymen.[16] The Khan Memorial Ward (Ward No. 51) was established in 1939 to treat paediatric orthopaedic patients.[16] Colombo College of Nursing was founded on 9 May 1939.[16]

When the University of Ceylon was established in 1942, the General Hospital was chosen to be its teaching hospital.[16] Paying wards such as Matapan Ward were established in 1943.[14] 1952 saw the building of hospital kitchens and the first cardiothoracic unit.[17] The hospital's first open-heart surgery took place in 1955.[17] An electrocardiography (ECG) unit was opened on 1 November 1955.[17] The College of Physiotherapy and the School of Radiology, both affiliated with the General Hospital, were founded in 1957.[17] The Bandaranaike Building (administration and surgery) was opened on 2 February 1958 by Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.[3][18][19] Eye care moved to the newly created Eye Hospital in 1965 and on 1 January 1967 an accident ward was opened in the vacated Victoria Memorial Building by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake.[19] Ceylon's first intensive care unit was opened in the Surgical Complex by Minister of Health E. L. Senanayake on 16 June 1968.[17][20] A mental health ward (Ward No. 59) was founded in the late 1960s.[19] Plastic surgery was introduced in 1970 in Ward No. 4.[20] The Coronary Care Unit was opened in 1973.[20] The Burn Unit started on 28 October 1974 in Lady de Soysa Ward.[21]

In 1979 the Sri Lankan and Finnish governments entered into an agreement to renovate the General Hospital, with 85% of the funding coming from Finns.[21] Numerous projects were carried out as a result of the agreement including the complete refurbishment of the accident, emergency, orthopaedic and trauma units, the establishment of the training unit and laundry, and the building of a new mortuary.[21][22] The Renal Transplant Unit was opened on 6 May 1987.[22] A new accident ward was opened by President Ranasinghe Premadasa on 15 March 1991.[19] The Medical Ward Complex was opened by President Chandrika Kumaratunga on 1 February 1995.[22] On 31 January 1996 the hospital had to treat 1,200 victims of the Colombo Central Bank bombing.[22] The Neurotrauma Unit, funded by the Saudi Arabian government, was opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 31 March 2011.[23] Rajapaksa opened the third Medical Ward Complex on 19 April 2013.[24]

• nhsl.health.gov.lk