Some history

At the beginning of the 18th century, the vicar of the Saint-Sulpice church transformed an old boarding school into a small parish hospital: the hospital of the Jesus Child. In 1751, it became a Royal Foundation. The French Revolution made it the National Orphan House.
Then, in 1778, Suzanne Necker, the wife of the Finance Minister of Louis XVI, created a hospital located next door, in Sevres street, devoted to medicine and surgery for adults. She wanted it to be an exemplary hospital where each patient had an individual bed. In this hospital, René Laennec invented the stethoscope in 1816.
In 1802, the Hospital General Council decided to gather the orphans in a children’s home, called the Found Children, in the Saint-Antoine suburbs. The former Orphan
House then became the place of care for all the sick children under 15 years of age, who were previously hospitalised in the adult hospitals Hotel Dieu, La Charité, Necker, Cochin and Beaujon. These 250 beds hospital was named Hôpital des Enfants Malades (Hospital of the Sick Children).

It was the first paediatric hospital created in the world.

Today

Necker-Enfants Malades hospital is the heir to this double history: beside its services devoted to children medicine and surgery, it has an adult department
of more than 200 beds. Taking advantage of its unique origins, its medical teams have developed a world class medical service, supported by an exceptional synergy between technical expertise, the research units and the clinical units.
At a major refferal center for rare diseases and for complex pathologies, the hospital Necker-Enfants Malades provides services well beyonod Paris and its area: more than 20% of the patients come from other provinces in France or from aboard.

Some facts and figures