UMCG bestaat 225 jaar

 

A journey through time: from Nosocomium Academicum to UMCG  

The history of the University Medical Center Groningen starts in 1797, with the opening of the Nosocomium Academicum. The world and the hospital looked very different then. A journey through time. 

1614: medical education in Groningen

In 1614, the foundation of a university of applied sciences -  – the current University of Groningen - made it possible to receive medical academic education in Groningen. Dr. Nicolaus Mulerius was appointed as the first professor. The content of medical education was partly determined by the division between academic doctors, surgeons and barbers. It was beneath the dignity of the academic doctors to get involved in the crafty and often bloody work of surgeons and barbers. Nor did the academics want to risk their reputation for the not unlikely event that a treatment failed. As a result, education at the university of applied sciences often had a philosophical character.

1797: opening of the Nosocomium Academicum

At the end of the eighteenth century, the importance of practical clinical education for academics became clear. The then professor of medicine, Evert Jan Thomassen à Thuessink, therefore took the initiative to found a university hospital. The hospital, named Nosocomium Academicum, opened its doors on 11 November 1797 in the Green Orphanages on the ‘Hofstraat’, right in the city centre of Groningen.

1803: larger location in the West-Indisch Huis

However good Thomassen à Thuessink’s initiative was, the Nosocomium soon proved to be too small and simple to be a success. Therefore, in 1803, Thomassen à Thuessink opened a better-equipped hospital in the West India House on the Munnekeholm, just a few blocks away. And with success. Confidence in the hospital grew. More and more patients came forward and the treatments were increasingly successful.

At the new location, many more people could be admitted. Whereas the hospital in the Green Orphanage had eight beds, the new hospital had no fewer than forty. The number of departments also increased. For many years, internal medicine was the only medical speciality. In 1808, the departments of Surgery and Obstetrics were added.

1819: opening of the City Hospital for the Poor

In 1817, a typhoid epidemic threatened Groningen. Because the Nosocomium Academicum almost only took in patients who were important for medical education, the city council established a temporary city hospital. Two years later, it was decided to turn the temporary hospital into a permanent one. The Stads Armen-Ziekenhuis was housed in the ‘Schuitemakersstraat’ and could accommodate twenty-five to thirty patients.

1852: merger into Algemeen Provinciaal Stads- en Academisch Ziekenhuis (General Provincial City and Academic Hospital) 

The Nosocomium Academicum and the Stads Armen-Ziekenhuis merged in 1852 to become the Algemeen Provinciaal Stads- en Academisch Ziekenhuis (APSAZ). The hospital in the West-Indisch Huis was rebuilt to accommodate 124 beds. Medical science had developed quite a bit by then. As a result, treatments were often so complicated that they could no longer be performed in people’s homes. At the same time, demand continued to exceed capacity. Thus, the demand continued to exceed the capacity. The hospital’s equipment was also inadequate. There was a shortage of instruments and clothing, and the nursing rooms were overcrowded. With the merger and the renovation, the hospital’s care and education were still not optimal. There was a need for a large new hospital.

1903: opening of new hospital on ‘Oostersingel’

In 1889, after years of consideration, the city council decided to build the new hospital on the ‘Oostersingel’, where the city’s ramparts had previously stood. Fourteen years later, in 1903, the APSAZ opened its doors. The new building consisted of separate pavilions on a large site. Each speciality had its own clinic: Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Psychiatry. Carefully laid out gardens lay between the pavilions. The building complex fully satisfied the requirements of the time: light, space and hygiene.

In the period that followed, the hospital managed to take a strong position in northern healthcare. The number of admissions increased, and medical science flourished. Thoracic surgery is a good example. In 1938, the speciality was still in its infancy, but within a short period it developed into a full-fledged specialization within the APSAZ. This eventually resulted in the establishment of the Groningen Heart Centre in 1947. Another example is the development of the heart-lung machine. Doctors and instrument makers from the APSAZ developed the heart-lung machine in an attic room. After two and a half years of development, the first open-heart surgery in the Netherlands was successfully performed in 1957 using the heart-lung machine in Groningen.

Because the hospital grounds were so spacious, the number of service buildings was able to grow over time with the demand for care and the developments in medical science. Thus, new specialisms arose, each with its own clinic on the site. Some examples are Ophthalmology in 1932 and the Paediatric Clinic in 1941. Due to the many new construction activities, almost nothing remained of the large gardens and green areas. The growing need for parking places also meant that the greenery disappeared from the APSAZ grounds.

1971: het Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (the University Hospital Groningen)

On 1 July 1971, a new law came into effect, making university hospitals independent. This law laid down the official division of tasks between state universities and teaching hospitals: the university was responsible for research and education and the hospital provided a workplace function for these tasks. 

The hospital also had to focus on patient care and developmental medicine. As a result, the Algemeen Provinciaal Stads- en Academisch Ziekenhuis became a legal entity separate from the university, with a new name: Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (AZG).

1997: new hospital complex

In the 1970s, a discussion started about a new central hospital complex. Part of that discussion was the location of the AZG. Other hospitals were built on the outskirts of cities, where there was ample space. But the Groningen city council decided otherwise. The new hospital was to be located on the same spot. 

Plans were made about what the hospital should look like: a number of separate buildings, with their own entrances and parking places. Over time, insights changed, resulting in a new concept: a hospital with one main entrance, one central reception, one parking garage and roofed inner streets. In 1997 the new building of the AZG was officially opened.

2005: het Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen (the University Medical Center Groningen)

The increasing coherence between academic education, medical scientific research, patient care and the training of medical specialists made the merger of the AZG and the Faculty of Medical Sciences necessary. It was deemed indispensable for investments based on a joint policy. The merger of the two organisations was officially confirmed on 13 January 2005. The new organisation was to receive a new name: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen.

225 years: Together. Better. UMCG

The journey through time that the small hospital in the centre of Groningen has made since the autumn of 1797 is almost unimaginable. Today, about 13,000 UMCG employees work together on care, research, training and education with the common goal of pushing boundaries for a sustainable future of health. We are extremely proud of what has been accomplished over the past 225 years and where we stand as UMCG in the year 2022.