Treatment of illness - hospitals and medical education

• Hospitals in medieval times


  • Provided care for patients, not cures
  • Most were owned and run by the Church, linked to monasteries or convents
  • Some were paid for by wealthy people when they died, in exchange for a promise that their soul would go to heaven
  • Cared for patients through prayer and by providing an environment where they could rest and recover
  • Patients were cared for by monks and nuns
  • Offered a place to stay for travellers and those on pilgrimage
  • Kept clean, with bedding changed and washed regularly
  • Patients allowed to take part in church services from their beds
• Leprosy


  • A skin disease that led to fingers and toes falling off, hair falling out and eventually death
  • Those suffering were separated from the community and made to live in a 'leper house'
  • Wore a cloak and rang a bell to warn others
  • Believed to be highly contagious
  • Not allowed to receive care in a hospital, cared for in separate leper houses
• Medieval physicians


  • Trained at a university for at least seven years, studied ancient physicians like Hippocrates and Galen
  • Diagnosed a patient's illness and recommended treatment after close observation
  • Were expensive, only the rich could afford to see them
  • The poor were treated by female family members or women within their community
• St Bartholomew's in London is a famous medieval hospital that is still taking care of patients today