Josep Trueta

Josep Trueta i Raspall (1897–1977) was a Spanish medical doctor.

As a Catalan nationalist, he was forced into exile to England after the Spanish Civil War, during which he had been the chief of trauma services for the city of Barcelona. In 1939 his English-language work, Treatment of War Wounds and Fractures, with special reference to the Closed Method as used in the war in Spain, was published in London. His work was noted and accepted by the British RAMC, so influencing British Army medical practice. During World War II, he helped to organize medical emergency services. His use of a new plaster cast method for the treatment of open wounds and fractures helped save a great number of lives during several wars.

Trueta formed part of a group of Catalans exiled in the United Kingdom who denounced the situation of Catalonia in Francoist Spain. He wrote The Spirit of Catalonia, a book aimed at explaining Catalan history to English-speaking society.

He joined the team run by Florey and Chain that developed penicillin in Oxford, and held the first live animal to be injected with the groundbreaking antibiotic.

from 1949 to 1966 he was the third Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Oxford and directed the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (previously the Wingfield-Morris Hospital). On his retirement in 1966, he returned to Catalonia.

The main hospital of Girona was named in his honour, as are streets in many towns across Catalonia. Every year the government of Catalonia awards Trueta medals and plaques to professionals and institutions that excel in the Catalan medical field.