Garrett opened the New Hospital for Women in London, the first British hospital staffed entirely by women.
On 1 June 1872, the New Hospital for Women opened in London under Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's leadership, growing out of her earlier St Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children (founded in 1866). The new hospital was staffed entirely by women physicians and surgeons, making it the first hospital in Britain to be run and staffed wholly by women.
The hospital provided a crucial space where women could receive medical treatment from female doctors—something many patients, particularly for gynecological and obstetric concerns, greatly desired but had previously been unable to access given the male-dominated medical profession.
Equally important, the hospital served as a training ground and workplace for the small but growing number of qualified female doctors in Britain, who otherwise faced significant discrimination in seeking hospital appointments and clinical experience at established, male-run institutions.
The hospital would later be renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in her honor, and it continued operating for over a century, becoming a lasting symbol of women's capability in medicine. Its founding represented a critical institutional step beyond individual achievement, embedding women's medical practice within Britain's healthcare infrastructure and providing continuity for future generations of female doctors.