The BRI is a teaching hospital with close links to Bristol University and provides acute medicine and surgery, critical care, trauma, orthopaedic and accident & emergency services to the population of the southern part of Bristol. It also provides the centre for cardio-thoracic services for the southwest region.
The Bristol Royal Infirmary has been providing care 'to benefit the poor sick' since 1737.
The hospital comprises three principal buildings, the original "Old Building", the King Edward VII Building, which stands opposite the Old Building on the north side of Upper Maudlin Street, and the Queens Building - which is also on the north side of of Upper Maudlin Street. A fourth, brand-new building, the Bristol Heart Institute, is located behind the Bristol Royal Infirmary and will be open for patients in May 2009.
