London’s Oldest Eastman Dental and Royal National ENT Hospitals Merged

Report by Prof Fazal Ghani

In the autumn of 2019, both the Eastman Dental Hospital and the Royal National ENT Hospital will be moving to its brand new Centre on Huntley Street, London WC1E. Both will jointly provide patients with a world-leading center for diagnosis and treatment of conditions affecting the ear, nose, throat and mouth.

Both hospitals are currently situated at Gray’s Inn Road London. The Eastman and Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital (RNTNEH) date back more than 200 years and are in buildings, that are unsuitable for 21st-century healthcare. Dr. Hodgson said: “If you provide world-class treatment you expect a world-class environment. This new Huntley Street place will be the only place that has ENT and Dentistry in the same place working clinically together.”  

 In 2017, University College London Hospitals planned to combine Eastman Dental and Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital at a new site in Huntley Street, Bloomsbury Health Authority, London. Since January 2017, work is in progress to build the biggest hospital in Europe specializing in complex dental surgery and advanced ear, nose and throat treatments with a cost of GBP 105 million.

The central Bloomsbury location places the new Eastman Dental and NTNE Centers at the heart of the University College London (UCL) campus and next door to University College Hospital and the Macmillan Cancer Centre, facilitating collaborative working across teaching, research and patient care.

The new state of the art Eastman Dental Institute will be based around the corner from the new Centre in the Rockefeller Building. Both the Eastman Dental and RNTNE Hospitals look forward to welcoming students at the new location in 2019. The £104 million nine-storey facility will be the first in Britain to combine the two specialties (Dental and ENT) with its care ranging from surgery for children requiring multiple tooth extractions to implants for people with hearing loss. It is predicted to have 230,000 outpatient appointments a year when it opens in the autumn of 2019.

Two patients, one from the Royal ENT Hospital, named Nick Coleman and the other from the Eastman Dental Hospital, named Liam Campling, helped University College London Hospital (UCLH) bosses perform the ground-breaking ceremony at the new site. Mr. Coleman, a music journalist diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss — commonly known as sudden deafness — said: “My whole life revolved around music and it went in an instant but with help from RNTNEH I was able to start to create a scenario where there was a life ahead for me. My powerful hearing aid means I now hear music better than I expected.” The other patient (Mr. Campling) who was then referred to the Eastman Dental Hospital after losing the enamel on the back of his teeth. Specialists at the Eastman, coated his teeth with a layer of gold after complex reconstruction. He added: “The care was really good and I felt in safe hands.”

Eastman Dental Institute and Hospital initially started in 1926 when an American innovator, entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman donated £200,000 to fund a dental clinic in London.
Before that George Eastman had already funded a Dental Dispensary devoted to the oral health of children in his home town of Rochester, New York, USA. On 20 November 1931, its London counterpart, the Eastman Dental Clinic opened in front of Neville Chamberlain and the American Ambassador. The clinic was part of the Royal Free Hospital and was committed to providing dental care for disadvantaged children from central London.

In 1948, the Eastman became independent of the Royal Free and became the Postgraduate Dental Institute with the name of Institute of Dental surgery (IDS) and Eastman dental Hospital (EDH) to function the British Postgraduate Medical Federation. The objects of the institute were to:

1. Train consultants, specialists and teachers in various branches of dentistry.


2. Provide facilities for, and research by, members of staff and students.


3. Provide clinical and laboratory facilities, and instruction for candidates working for higher degrees or diplomas.


4. Provide short courses for general practitioners.

In 1996 the Institute of Dentistry (IDS) at the Eastman Dental Hospital (EDH) joined the University College London (UCL) Hospitals Trust becoming part of a large network of surgical and medical excellence. The Institute subsequently became part of UCL in August 1999 and is now an integral part of the UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences.

To coincide with these shifting developments, the Eastman Dental Institute is celebrating its 70^th Anniversary to mark its existence at the present Grays’ Inn Road Campus in London on 22 and 23 November 2018 when Eastman staff and alumni will gather.

A subsequent re-union event of the Staff and Alumni of Prosthetic Dentistry Department of the Eastman Dental Institute (Batch 1986-88) is also being arranged in March 2019 to coincide with both, the shifting of the Hospitals to their new joint location and the 66^TH Annual Meeting of the British Society of Prosthodontics (BSSPD) planned for 15-16 March 2019 at the Royal College of Physicians in London.

A News-item in the British Dental Journal (April 2018 Issue),  informed all those interested, to attend the event, and to contact the event organizer, for other details. (Professor Dr. Fazal Ghani, Dean Postgraduate Dental Studies, Peshawar Dental College, Warsak Road, Peshawar 25160 (Pakistan). Tel: 00923015943425. Email: fazalg55@hotmail.com)