The
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or
RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or
ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire. The hospital moved to a new 900 bed site in 2003 in
Little France. It is the site of clinical medicine teaching as well as a teaching hospital for the
University of Edinburgh Medical School. It is currently run by
NHS Lothian. In 1960, the first kidney transplant performed in the UK was performed at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by surgeon
Michael Woodruff. In 1964, the world's first
coronary care unit was established at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by Dr. Desmond Julian. It is the only site for liver, pancreas and pancreatic islet cell transplantation and one of two sites for
kidney transplantation in
Scotland. It is currently the only site for
TAVI in Scotland. In 2012 the Emergency Department had 113,000 patient attendances, the highest number in Scotland. On 16 November 2014, the University announced the Royal Infirmary as the location of Scotland's first
PET-MRI Scanner.