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History of Hospitals - First Hospital In The World?

The need for care of the weak and sick exists ever since the earliest days of human society. However, people much later came to the idea to set up a hospital.
Old Greeks for example, didn't had any public institution for the care of the sick. Some doctors had their rooms for operation, in which they could do their job, but they were so small that they could accommodate only one patient.
Romans at the time of the wars founded hospitals in which they treated the wounded and sick soldiers. Later, also the larger cities of the Roman Empire got hospitals that were maintained with resources from public funds.
With the rise of Christianity, the church took care of patients, and the largest number of hospitals in the Middle Ages was under the auspices of the monasteries, so that the priests and nuns cared for the patients.
Custom traveling to pilgrimage also helped the establishment of hospitals.
Traveling to places of pilgrimage took long time, and the pilgrims had rest in small guestrooms (inns) on the roads. These inns were associated with monasteries and took over the care of the sick and weary travelers.
Since the conditions of life in the Middle Ages were not especial, and the hygiene was poor, the hospitals of that era were dirty and disorganized. Many hospitals were overcrowded, so it happened that more than one patient lied in one bed.
In the 17th century general living conditions improved and the people felt that the state is obligated to take care of its ill residents.
But only in the 18th Century, general public hospitals begin to open in the larger European cities.
In North America, the first hospital was erected by Cortes in Mexico in 1524.
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