Northfield Consumptive Home, later Morris Hospital (GA2416)

The Northfield Consumptive Home was opened on 10 November 1931 as a replacement for the Consumptive Home located at North Terrace that had provided treatment to patients with advanced tuberculosis and cancer. (1)

The Home was built on a portion of land formerly known as 'Conrad's Estate' at Northfield, adjacent to the Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital and near the Northfield Mental Hospital. It comprised an administrative block, nurses' block, three consumptive wards for 86 patients, and a cancer ward for 26 patients. (2)

In 1936, it was re-named the Morris Hospital in honour of the late Dr B. H. Morris, Inspector General of Hospitals. (3)

The Commonwealth Department of Defence utilised the Morris Hospital during World War Two as a hospital for returned service personnel. The keys were returned to the state government in 1946, and in January the following year the Board recommended to the Minister that the hospital should revert to its original function as an institution for tubercular and cancer patients. Civilian patients were returned to the hospital from January 1948. (4)

Units for the rehabilitation of neurosurgical patients and patients with spinal injuries were opened during the 1960s, and in the 1970s the hospital temporarily accommodated orthopaedic patients from the nearby Northfield Wards of the Royal Adelaide Hospital during redevelopment of the Northfield Wards. (5)

During the 1960s, individual wards of the hospital had been placed under the control of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. On 29 March 1973, the hospital itself was declared a part of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. (6)

In 1981, the Morris Hospital amalgamated with the Northfield Wards of the Royal Adelaide Hospital to form the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre. (7) See GA1279 for the Northfield Wards, previously the Northfield Infectious Diseases Hospital.


Sources:

(1) Forbes, Ian L D, To Succour and to Teach, p. 102.
(2) The Advertiser, 6 April 1929, p. 18.
(3) The Advertiser, 11 November 1936, p. 24.
(4) Forbes, Ian L D, To Succour and to Teach, pp. 102 - 105.
(5) Forbes, Ian L D, To Succour and to Teach, pp. 117 - 119, 123.
(6) South Australian Government Gazette, 29 March 1973, p. 1209.
(7) Forbes, Ian L D, To Succour and to Teach, p. 102.