Adelaide Children's Hospital (GA464)

The Adelaide Children's Hospital was founded in 1876 as a charitable institution by a small group of wealthy patrons, who supported the Hospital largely from their own considerable resources: accepting only a nominal grant from the government of the day. Originally intended only for poor and destitute sick children, as wards for paying patients were opened and as government funding increased, the Hospital gradually became accepted as a public hospital. These charges reflected changes in social attitudes and in general social organisation over time.

A site for the Hospital was selected and purchased in North Adelaide. Two dispensaries for outpatient care were opened in 1877; one on the North Adelaide site, the other in Currie Street. Construction began in 1878, and on 6 August 1879, the Children's Hospital was declared open. The Children's Hospital became an incorporated institution, under the Associations Incorporation Act on the 8 January 1880.

Hospital finances were supported by subscription, voluntary fund raising activities such as bazaars, concerts and fetes, and by donation, as well as by government grants. Hospital auxiliaries and youth organisations like the Sunbeam Club (founded in 1897) were engaged in hospital fund raising. For example, the Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children was funded by the activities of the Sunbeam Society. The Jubilee Dorcas Society, founded in 1897, worked for both the Hospital and the Convalescent Home. The Samaritan Fund for the relief of poverty and need amongst outpatients was established in 1903. The first street collection was conducted in 1904, and was financially very successful. Street collection continued until 1908. The state government agreed in 1924 to subsidise the building on a 1 for 1 pound sterling basis. In 1926 the Inspector-General of Hospitals offered an extra 1,000 pounds sterling per annum grant if the Hospital raised its age limit for patients from 10 to 12: an effective increase in patient numbers of 7 per day. Government grants of assistance increased fifteen fold over the decade 1946-1956. During the immediate post-Second World War era, and afterwards, the Commonwealth Governments national insurance scheme meant a guaranteed income for the Hospital. From 1952 onwards a levy of 18/- per day for patients in public wards was paid by government. The appointment of a Public Relations Officer in 1954 led to an expansion of hospital auxiliaries and of fund raising appeals. The post-World War Two era saw an enormous expansion in publicly funded medicine and hospital services.

The Adelaide Children's Hospital during this period underwent a phase of ongoing building construction. Culminating in the Development Plan of the 1970s, a multistage program of construction which was complete by 1986. Estcourt House, the convalescent home at Tennyson was purchased from the James Brown Memorial Trust, immediately after World War II.

In 1895 the Bacteriology Laboratory was established, the first in South Australia, and its services were available to the general community for a small fee. The first honorary bacteriologist has been appointed in 1894. The Allan Campbell Buildings opened in 1897, and housed an Isolated Ward and the Bacteriological Laboratory. The South Australian Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology, formed in 1898, took control of the Laboratory, as it had been felt that the Institute could more satisfactorily run the laboratory than the Hospital. The Hospital's honorary bacteriologist was an ex-officio director of the laboratory (later called the Elder Laboratory). In 1920 the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology relinquished its control over the Elder Laboratory and it reverted back under the aegis of the Children's Hospital.

The Hospital pharmacy began the organisation of a Poisons Information Centre for doctors and chemists in metropolitan Adelaide. This started unofficially in 1963 with the collection of information about the effects of many household preparations when swallowed by children, to provide immediate and accurate advice in emergencies. The Hospital was asked by the Chief Secretary in 1966 to become the principal Poisons Information Centre for South Australia; the Medical Superintendent was appointed as Director, and Chief Pharmacist as Officer in Chief. The establishment of the Poisons Information Centre (on an official basis) was part of an initiative by the Toxicology Branch of the Commonwealth Department of Health.

The main changes to the Adelaide Children's Hospital over the first century occurred in its organization and its administration. This saw the Adelaide Children's Hospital commence as a privately funded charitable voluntarist organisation administered public institution financed by State and Commonwealth funds, assisted by public donations. While, on the medical science side, it had started as a place where homoeopathic and allopathic medicine were practised, and progressively adopted scientific medical methods and procedures, and modern standards of hygiene. The Adelaide Children's Hospital conducts extensive research and teaching programs, in order to keep up with advances and applications in medical knowledge and practices related to child health.

In 1989 the Adelaide Children's Hospital combined with the Queen Victoria Hospital to form the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children, known from 1995 as the Women's and Children's Hospital.


Sources:

Margaret Barbalet, The Adelaide Children's Hospital 1876-1976: A History (Adelaide: The Adelaide Children's Hospital, 1975)