From Australian Military Hospital to World-Leading Transplant Centre
Standing in the north-west corner of Hillingdon, Harefield Hospital carries a legacy few medical institutions can match. What began as temporary wooden shacks for wounded soldiers has evolved into one of the world's most respected centres for heart and lung transplantation.
Origins in War and Recovery
The land beneath the hospital has served the sick for more than a century. In 1915, the estate β then owned by the Australian Billyard-Leake family β became No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, treating injured ANZAC soldiers during the First World War. The hospital's international roots remain visible today; an annual ANZAC Day service continues at St Mary's Church, where Australian soldiers from that era lie buried.
After the war, Middlesex County Council purchased the estate. In October 1921, Harefield Sanatorium opened its doors, specialising in tuberculosis treatment. The site's elevated position and fresh air were considered ideal for lung patients. A permanent building replaced the wooden structures on 8 October 1937, opened by the Duke of Gloucester. When the National Health Service launched in 1948, Harefield became part of the new national healthcare system.
The Dawn of Cardiac Specialisation
The hospital's transformation began quietly. On 4 December 1947, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors performed the world's first direct pulmonary valvotomy at Harefield, operating on a young man with Fallot's Tetralogy. This procedure marked the hospital's pivot toward cardiac care.
Cardiologist Walter Somerville arrived in 1952, establishing the foundations of modern cardiology at the site. By the late 1960s, Harefield was positioning itself for a dramatic shift in its medical identity.
The Yacoub Era and Transplant Milestones
In 1969, a 33-year-old Egyptian-born surgeon named Magdi Yacoub joined Harefield as a cardiothoracic surgeon. Within four years, he performed the hospital's first heart transplant. But it was the creation of a dedicated transplant programme in 1980 that would cement Harefield's place in medical history.
On 23 February 1980, Derrick Morris received a heart transplant at Harefield. He would survive for 25 years, becoming Europe's longest-surviving transplant recipient until his death in 2005. His longevity helped transform public perception of transplant surgery from experimental procedure to viable treatment.
The breakthroughs continued. On 6 December 1983, Yacoub performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant on Swedish journalist Lars Ljungberg. The operation lasted five and a half hours and required a team of twenty doctors and nurses. Though the patient survived only thirteen days, the procedure demonstrated that such complex surgery was possible on British soil.
By 1985, Yacoub had performed a heart-lung transplant on a three-year-old child, then the world's youngest recipient of such a procedure. In 1987, the hospital pioneered the 'domino' procedure: a cystic fibrosis patient received a combined heart-lung transplant, while their own healthy heart was transplanted into another waiting patient. By the end of the 1980s, Yacoub and his team had performed approximately 1,000 transplant procedures.
Organisational Evolution
In 1993, Harefield merged with Royal Brompton Hospital to form the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. This partnership strengthened both institutions' cardiac and respiratory specialisations. The trust expanded further in April 2021, joining Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, creating one of Britain's largest healthcare providers.
Harefield Today
The hospital now operates 168 beds with no Accident & Emergency department, functioning entirely as a specialist centre. It remains one of the largest and most experienced facilities in the world for heart and lung transplants.
Innovation has not stopped. In 2004, Harefield became the first UK hospital to establish a 24/7 primary angioplasty service for heart attack patients. In 2013, it was the first UK transplant centre to adopt the Organ Care System, sometimes called 'heart in a box', which keeps donor hearts beating and supplied with oxygen during transport, extending the time available for transplantation.
Research continues through affiliation with the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. The hospital's clinicians publish between 500 and 600 papers annually, contributing to its ranking in the World's Best Specialised Hospitals listings.
Local Connections
Despite its international reputation, Harefield maintains strong ties to Hillingdon. The hospital opens its doors to the public through open days, offering residents the opportunity to see inside its cath labs and theatres. Its workforce includes large communities from the Philippines, India, Nigeria and Portugal, reflecting the diverse population it serves.
The ANZAC commemoration each April reminds staff and visitors alike that this corner of Hillingdon has been a place of healing for more than a century. From treating tuberculosis patients in open-air wards to pioneering transplant surgery that has saved thousands of lives, Harefield Hospital embodies the evolution of modern medicine while remaining rooted in its community.
