AGY-6861 | War Memorial Hospital Waverley

Full description

A proposal to establish a Methodist war memorial hospital was endorsed at the annual conference of the Church held in March 1919. (1) The following month, the Vickery family undertook to donate their substantial home 'Edina' for this purpose. (2) This gift was subject to certain conditions, including the need for the hospital trustees to purchase a number of adjacent residences, that patients of all denominations be admitted and the hospital be named the 'E Vickery War Memorial Hospital' in memory of the late Ebenezer Vickery. (3)

On 26 June 1919, upon a recommendation by the hospital committee, the Executive Committee of the Sustentation Society accepted the Vickery family's offer (4) and a campaign was soon under way to raise the funds required to effect the necessary alterations. (5)

By August 1920, plans for the first stage of the development, the conversion of the 'Ellerslie' residence, had been approved and work had commenced. (6) On 5 February 1921, Ellerslie was officially opened. (7) It comprised nine wards containing 20 beds, an operating theatre, staff accommodation, a kitchen and a laundry. (8)

In March 1921, the hospital was registered as the 'War Memorial Hospital' under the Private Hospitals Act 1908. (9) The Register of Licensed Private Hospitals records the licence as first issued on 23 March 1921 with Herbert Middleton Hawkins as the licensee and Elizabeth Hunter the Resident Manager. The Class of Hospital was recorded as Medical, Surgical and Lying-in with the maximum number of patients to be received shown initially as 20, amended later to 92, then 109. (10)

On 11 November 1922, Edina was officially opened as the main hospital building and named the 'E Vickery Memorial Hospital'. (11) Ellerslie was now to be converted into a maternity section resulting in a total capacity at the hospital of between 70 and 80 beds. (12)

As early as March 1928 the 'War Memorial Private Hospital (Waverley)' had been formally recognised by the Nurses Registration Board as a training school for general nurses (13) and, by 1967, had also been approved for Nursing Aides. (14)

On 13 June 1969, the hospital came under the purview of the Hospitals Commission, listed as the 'Methodist War Memorial Hospital (Waverley)' on the Third Schedule of the Public Hospitals Act 1929. (15) Third Schedule Hospitals, or separate institutions as they are called in the Act, were administered by charitable institutions or religious bodies that appointed their own governing bodies and received subsidies from the Government. (16)

In 1970, the Hospitals Commission reported that the War Memorial Hospital had a bed capacity of 139 and that it had treated 4147 in-patients, had 820 out-patient attendances and that 504 babies had been born. (17)

In August 1977, following the union of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches, the name of the hospital, as listed on the Third Schedule of the Public Hospitals Act 1929, was changed from 'The Methodist War Memorial Hospital (Waverley)' to the 'War Memorial Hospital (Waverley)'. (18)

In 1982, the NSW Government commenced a program to redistribute metropolitan health services to meet population growth in Sydney's western suburbs. Under this program, the War Memorial Hospital was reduced in size and underwent a change in roles. 50 beds were closed at the hospital, (19) all acute and surgical services ceased and, from 1985, the facility operated as a geriatric rehabilitation unit. (20)

In July 1998, the Public Hospitals Act 1929 was repealed by the Health Services Act 1997. The 'War Memorial Hospital (Waverley)' was listed in Schedule 3 of the new Act as a recognised establishment in relation to the Uniting Church in Australia, an affiliated health organisation under the Act. (21)

In 2016, the hospital was affiliated with the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District under the governance of Uniting Care. Its primary role was rehabilitation and assessment services for the aged, providing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation and podiatry services, dementia and frail aged day-care services, with an aged care assessment team, as well as specialist clinics and health promotion activities. (22)

Endnotes
1. 'War Memorial Hospital' in The Methodist, 5 April 1919, p.10 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155267111/15590548 (accessed 20 May 2016).
2. 'The War Memorial Hospital. A Great and Generous Gift' in The Methodist, 24 May 1919, p.1 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155264313 (accessed 20 May 2016).
3. 'The War Memorial Hospital' in The Methodist, 31 May 1919, p.2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155267925 (accessed 5 May 2016).
4. 'War Memorial Hospital. Edina Unanimously Accepted' in Sydney Morning Herald, 27 June 1919, p.7 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15857860 (accessed 20 May 2016).
5. 'The Opening of the Campaign' in The Methodist, 4 October 1919, p.4 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155265641 (accessed 20 May 2016).
6. 'War Memorial Hospital' in Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August 1920, p.5 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15903457 (accessed 20 May 2016).
7. 'War Memorial. New Hospital. Methodist Movement.' in Sydney Morning Herald, 7 February 1921, p.8 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15938339 (accessed 20 May 2016).
8. 'Official Opening of Ellerslie War Memorial Hospital' in Sydney Mail, 9 February 1921, p.24 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/159039238 (accessed 20 May 2016).
9. Private Hospitals Act 1908 (Act No.14, 1908), s.6(1).
10. NSW Board of Health, Register of Licensed Private Hospitals, 13 August 1920-27 April 1926, NRS 606 [5/5859], p.66.
11. 'The Ministry of Healing' in The Methodist, 11 November 1922, p.10 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155260953/15588654 (accessed 20 May 2016).
12. 'Hospital Facts' in The Methodist, 11 November 1922, p.11 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/15588655 (accessed 20 May 2016).
13. List of Hospitals Recognised as Training Schools by the Nurses' Registration Board of New South Wales, 15 March 1928. NSW Government Gazette No.40, 23 March 1928, p.1369.
14. List of Hospitals Recognized as Training Schools by the Nurses' Registration Board of New South Wales, 31 March 1967. NSW Government Gazette No.31, 31 March 1967, p.1045.
15. Public Hospitals Act 1929 (Act No.8, 1929), s.4, Third Schedule; NSW Government Gazette No.67, 13 June 1969, p.2161.
16. NSW Government Directory, 1999, p.189.
17. Report of the Hospitals Commission of New South Wales for the year ended 30 June 1970, p.38 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1969-70-71 Vol.4, p.617.
18. NSW Government Gazette No.97, 26 August 1877, p.3646.
19. Department of Health Annual Report 1982-83, pp.10, 12 in in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1983-84 Vol.5, No.63.
20. The War Memorial Hospital - History, p.11: http://www.wmhw.org.au/history/94B74F0AA0F22948BD292F410A6FD87A (accessed 20 May 2016).
21. Health Services Act 1997 (Act No.154, 1997), s.62; Sch.3.; NSW Government Gazette No.97, 26 June 1998, p.4423.
22. Health. South East Sydney Local Health District website, 'Uniting War Memorial Hospital', http://www.seslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/war_memorial (accessed 20 May 2016).