[1] It is also home to the UK's biggest sleep centre, and is one of five hospitals commissioned by NHS England to provide Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) to adults with severe respiratory failure.

[7][8] In August 1979, surgeon Terence English performed the first successful heart transplant in the UK at Papworth Hospital.

[10] In February 1986 Paul Coffey and some of his friends started the 'T' Planters Club which held annual fundraising dinners; the ‘T’ was in recognition of the pioneer surgeon Sir Terence English.

[12] In August 1994 a team of doctors carried out a revolutionary operation when 62-year-old Arthur Cornhill was given the world's first permanent battery-operated heart.

[16] In 2020, Series 3 of the BBC show Surgeons: At the Edge of Life premiered, with many operations filmed at Royal Papworth Hospital.

[21] In March 2015, the hospital announced that its move to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus was being procured under a private finance initiative contract.

Sub-specialities include:[29] Teams at Royal Papworth have conducted the most heart transplants every year in the UK since 2008/09, with the best risk-adjusted survival rates.

[30] On 2 November 2007 it was announced that Papworth Hospital would suspend heart transplant activities while an investigation was undertaken into an unexplained rise in recipient mortality rates.

[36] On 23 December 2011, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, then 90 years of age, underwent successful coronary angioplasty and stenting at Papworth Hospital.