Royal Public Dispensary
Coordinates: 55°56′56″N 3°11′24″W / 55.949°N 3.190°WThe Public Dispensary of Edinburgh (1776-1964) is regarded as the first free-of-charge hospital in Scotland, although there is an unsubstantiated reference to one in Dundee in 1735. It gave rise to both the first Department of General Practice and, in 1963, the first Chair of General Practice in the world, both at the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh has a history of providing free medical care to the poor. In first meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in 1681, the Fellows drew up a scheme to provide free medical care for the poor of Edinburgh. At the end of the seventeenth century, Scotland was one of the poorest nations in Europe although Edinburgh was its richest town. The RCPE designated two Fellows per year to provide medical care to the city’s poor, fore running the Dispensary.
By the eighteenth century, Edinburgh remained overcrowded, disease-ridden, and an overflowing with the poor. In 1705, the Fellows at the RCPE unanimously agreed to continue providing medical aid for the poor by two Fellows per year at their new premises in Fountain Close. This "Dispensary" service continued at Fountain Close until 1729 when it transferred to the new "Physicians’ Hospital or Infirmary for the Sick and Poor."
A Dispensary for the Infant Poor had already been established in London in 1769, although it did not survive, and the idea expanded. By 1776, Dispensaries had been established across England. Edinburgh's public dispensary was founded in 1776 by Andrew Duncan and provided the impoverished in the city with free medical advice. The Dispensary was established and financed as a public charity from the beginning and was an extension of Duncan’s teaching program. Patients attending the Dispensary received free medicines and advice and in return agreed to be demonstrations in Duncan’s classes.
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