Queen Victoria Hospital

Queen Victoria Hospital was the new name given to the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital in 1966. Run by a committee of management the Hospital provided maternity and other women’s health services. It also operated as an adoption agency. From 1983 some men were also admitted. In 1989 the Queen Victoria Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital were amalgamated to form the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children.

By the mid 1960s the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital had expanded beyond its original role as a Maternity Hospital to provide other medical services including gynaecology. The management committee of the Hospital voted to change the name to the Queen Victoria Hospital Incorporated in 1966.

Between 1964 and 1968 an extensive program of new building and refurbishment of the old buildings was in operation. In 1966 a £10,000 extension to the nursery was built to deal with an increase in the number of babies awaiting adoption. According to a history of the QVH written by Ian L.D. Forbes, this increase was caused by a change in legislation, with the passing of the Adoption of Children Act 1966/67. At one stage accommodation was being sought for twenty to thirty infants who were being cared for prior to being adopted. An agreement was also made with the Mothers and Babies Health Association to transfer some of these children to Torrens House.

On 27 January 1967 a new multi-storey wing was officially opened by the Governor to aid with the expansion of the hospital’s services.

In February 1982, a comprehensive statement of the role of the Queen Victoria Hospital was approved. The institution was defined as a specialist teaching hospital in obstetrics, gynaecology, and neonatology, with a specific role to provide normal and high risk obstetric and neonatal care. According to Forbes:

It was a full and optimistic statement of the hospital’s emergence as a complete women’s hospital.

However, in 1983 male patients with fertility issues began to be treated at the Hospital which up until that time had served only women and babies.

On 15th March 1989 the Queen Victoria Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital were amalgamated to form the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children, known from 1995 as the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.