A small community hospital in NW Edinburgh, Ferryfield House is located in Pilton, 2 miles (3 km) northwest of the city centre. The hospital has two wards and sixty beds, and specialises in short term and respite care for the frail elderly, often suffering from dementia. Ferryfield House received its first patients in 1996, replacing the Northern General Hospital, which lay immediately to the south. It was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal on 5th March 1997.
The facility was procured at a cost of £2 million under a Private Finance Initiative contract with builders James Walker (Leith) Ltd., who are based in Alderstone House in Livingston. It continues to be managed by their Walker Healthcare subsidiary, while care services are provided by National Health Service staff.
The Northern General had its origins in 1896 as the Leith Public Health Hospital for infectious diseases. It was used by the Admiralty during the First World War, thereafter becoming known as the East Pilton Hospital and then the Northern General Hospital. The first clinical trial of the drug ibuprofen took place in the Rheumatic Diseases Unit here in the 1950s. The hospital closed progressively until 1996, when it was demolished, to be replaced by a supermarket the following year.
