Both Bruntsfield Hospital and the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital were closely connected with Edinburgh's best known medical women. They originated from the wishes of Sophia Jex-Blake and Elsie Inglis to provide medical care for women, while at the same time offering practical experience to young female doctors.

Bruntsfield Hospital had its origins in the Edinburgh Provident Dispensary for Women and Children, opened by Sophia Jex-Blake at 73 Grove Street in September 1878. When the Dispensary moved to no.6 Grove Street in 1885, it was able to provide six beds for women requiring hospital treatment and the institution changed its name to the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children in 1899, when Sophia Jex-Blake retired and left Edinburgh, the Executive Committee of the hospital acquired her home, Bruntsfield Lodge. After alterations, the lodge provided 18 beds as a small general hospital for women: it gradually expanded and its bed complement reached 72.

In 1910, after a number of years of cooperation between the staff of the two institutions, Bruntsfield Hospital amalgamated with Elsie Inglis' Hospice in the High Street. Medical, surgical and gynaecological work was done at Bruntsfield, while obstetric and infant work was carried out at the Hospice. Like the Hospice, Bruntsfield Hospital retained its own dispensary and its own name.

From 1948 the Bruntsfield became part of Edinburgh Southern Hospitals group under South Eastern Regional Hospitals Board. It closed in 1989.