Royal Papworth Hospital

Royal Papworth Hospital is a specialist heart and lung hospital, located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridgeshire, England. The hospital is run by Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The hospital is a world-leading cardiothoracic transplant centre and the biggest in the UK, having carried out more heart and lung transplants in 2019/20 than any other hospital. It is also home to the UK's biggest sleep centre, and is one of five hospitals commissioned by NHS England to provide Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) to adults with severe respiratory failure.

Papworth Hospital was founded at Papworth Everard (to the west of Cambridge) in 1918 as a sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis among discharged soldiers who had served in the First World War, following a campaign led by Elsbeth Dimsdale, and was initially known as the “Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony”. The institution was initially under the direction of Dr (later Sir) Pendrill Varrier-Jones. From the 1950s, surgical facilities developed, beginning with thoracic (chest/lung) surgery and expanding to cardiac surgery. Surgeon Ben Milstein performed the first open-heart surgery at Papworth Hospital in September 1958.

In August 1979, surgeon Terence English performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK at Papworth Hospital. The patient, Keith Castle, lived for over five years following his surgery. In February 1980, 23-year-old male nurse Paul Coffey became Britain's thirteenth heart transplant patient, when he was given the heart of a woman who had died in a car crash, by surgeons at Papworth Hospital. In February 1986 Paul Coffey and some of his friends started the 'T' Planters Club which held annual fundraising dinners; the ‘T’ was in recognition of the pioneer surgeon Sir Terence English. In the four years between its founding and its winding up in 1990, the ‘T’–Planters Club raised £109,917.

In 1986, alongside a team from Addenbrooke's Hospital, the world's first heart-lung and liver transplant took place at Papworth Hospital. Surgeons John Wallwork and Roy Calne performed the operation on 35-year-old Davina Thompson.

In August 1994 a team of doctors carried out a revolutionary operation when 62-year-old Arthur Cornhill was given the world's first permanent battery-operated heart.

In May 2014, a new CT scanner was unveiled at the old hospital by its royal patron, the Duchess of Gloucester.

In September 2017, Papworth Hospital was granted the designation “royal” by the Queen and so became Royal Papworth Hospital in January 2018.