The Western General celebrates its 150th anniversary this year – an occasion that offers the opportunity to celebrate:

  • The site’s illustrious history and achievements across 15 decades of care
  • Recent and current service developments and the achievements of teams, departments and individual staff
  • The future – considering ‘what next’ on its continuing journey as a major teaching hospital at the leading edge of developments in acute NHS care.

The plan is to commemorate the anniversary throughout 2018, making it a year of celebration rather than focus on a specific date. Ideas so far include:

  • 150 faces: displaying portraits  of  people connected to the WGH (past and present), with descriptions of what they mean to the Western and what the Western means to them
  • 150 voices: recordings of staff, volunteers, charity workers, etc describing what the WGH means to them
  • 150 places/objects: a display of images of places or objects, e.g. medical tools, illustrating the work of the WGH past and present
  • Timeline: A display showing milestones in the history of the WGH site and the wider NHS
  • Celebrating the history and achievements of departments / specialities at the WGH, e.g. commemorating the work of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DCN), celebrating its achievements and the start of a new chapter in its history as it prepares to relocate to the RIE site at Little France in 2018
  • Celebrating connections between specific activities within the WGH and the wider community (e.g. gardeners and gardening on site and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
  • Connecting activities and contributions of charities/groups at the WGH (such as Artlink, Volunteer Services, Music in Hospitals, etc.) with the 150th anniversary.

We are calling all staff – what do you think of these ideas? How would you like to commemorate the 150th anniversary?