of Engineering Technology in 1970 to become the Lanchester Polytechnic. In 1987 the name changed to Coventry Polytechnic and in 1992 it adopted the title Coventry University. The University of Warwick, located on the outskirts of Coventry, was established in 1965 and is consistently ranked in the Top Ten UK Universities in the national league tables. Since its establishment, the university has incorporated the former Coventry College of Education in 1979, and has expanded its grounds to with many modern buildings and academic facilities, lakes and woodlands. Coventry University, which dates back to the foundation of Coventry College of Design in 1843, has a site in central Coventry. Advent of healthcare and hospitals The earliest example of organised healthcare in Coventry was in existence by at least 1793. The General or Charitable Dispensary was financed by charity alone, and was intended for those who had "such claims to respectability" that they should be saved from resorting to parish aid. This was joined in 1831 by the Provident Dispensary in Bayley Lane, one of the earliest self-supporting dispensaries. There were two classes of subscribers: honorary members, whose contributions took the form of charitable donations, and "free" members, who paid a weekly or yearly sum to secure medical benefits. Coventry's periodic rapid growth outstripped its sanitation systems: overcrowded, poor living conditions combined with ineffective sewerage, drainage and refuse disposal systems lead to frequent epidemics and a high death toll. When the Commissioners on the State of Large Towns investigated Coventry in 1843 they found that there was no Act or regulation in force regarding drainage or sewerage, and an inquiry under the Public Health Act of 1848 lead to the city council being established as the local Board of Health in 1849 with associated powers, and the first Medical Officer of Health was appointed in 1874. The increasing pressure on the General Dispensary during the 1830s drew attention to the need for a general hospital. The first, the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, was founded in 1838 in a converted private house. The General Dispensary was merged with the hospital, and to cope with increasing demand, in 1863 a site in Stoney Stanton Road on which to build a larger hospital was acquired from Sir Thomas White's trustees and King Henry VIII Grammar School. The hospital was completed in 1866. Plans for a workhouse hospital were submitted in 1845, and in 1871 the