AGY-6913 | Manly Cottage Hospital (1896-1929) Manly District Hospital (1929- )

Full description

By the early 1890s, with the growing population of the district and its distance from Sydney, there began a push for the establishment of a hospital at Manly. On 28 July 1890, a meeting of the residents of Manly resolved to establish a cottage hospital for the 'treatment of accidents and disease', and appointed a committee to advance the proposal and raise subscriptions. (1) Fund raising was soon underway. In September 1890, for instance, the proceeds of the Manly Wildflower Show were donated to the hospital movement. (2)

At a public meeting held in May 1895, it was decided to subsidise a hospital bed at the premises of Nurse Bonnar for the accommodation of emergency cases. (3) The ward opened the following month. (4)

On 6 March 1896, a further public meeting appointed a sub-committee tasked to acquire land, prepare plans and seek government support for the completion of a cottage hospital for the Manly district. (5) By mid-March 1896, a site on the corner of Quinton Road and Raglan Street had been selected (6) and, at its annual meeting on 10 April 1896, the hospital committee accepted plans for the new hospital and voted 100 pounds for the purchase of the land. (7)

On 20 June 1896, the foundation stone was laid (8) and on 26 June, the Hospitals Acts 11 Vic No. 59 (1848) and 13 Vic No. 20 (1849) were applied by proclamation to the 'Manly and District Cottage Hospital'. (9)

The Appropriation Act of 1896-97, assented to on 16 November 1896, included a special grant of 250 pounds in aid of the Manly Cottage Hospital (10), which was received on the morning of its official opening on 12 December 1896. (11) A report of the ceremony described the facility as 'a very handsome brick and tile building'. It had accommodation for eight or ten beds, a kitchen, nurses' quarters and an isolation ward. (12)

In 1898, the Public Hospitals Act consolidated previous Acts relating to public hospitals, listing the hospital as 'Manly Cottage Hospital' on its Second Schedule. (13)

By the early 1920s, the hospital was struggling to meet its demands and there was a push to construct a new facility. (14) On 21 November 1924, the Public Works Committee approved the construction of a new public hospital to be known as the Manly Peace Memorial Hospital. (15)

The Manly Hospital Act, assented to on 23 December 1924, sanctioned the construction of the 'Manly Peace Memorial Hospital' at a cost of approximately 98,430 pounds. The works scheduled in the Act included an administration block, an 85-bed No.1 Ward pavilion, an operating block, a kitchen and laundry, a children's ward, a pathological department, an 8-bed temporary isolation block, separate quarters for male staff and nurses, a boiler house, and a morgue. (16)

In September 1926, tenders were called for the erection of the whole of these works (17) but they were not proceeded with. (18) In November, fresh tenders were called for the erection of what was termed the 'First Portion' of the hospital, which comprised the administration block, No.1 Ward pavilion and the kitchen and operating blocks. (19) Construction commenced in early 1928, the foundation stone unveiled on 28 January. (20) The works were completed later that year. (21)

Funding issues delayed the construction of the second portion of the hospital. (22) This stage, which included the nurses’ home and morgue, was reported by the Department of Public Works as underway by June 1930 and that its completion would 'permit of the Hospital functioning' (23), suggesting that the first portion of the facility had been lying idle. The works were reported as being completed by June 1931. (24) The Manly Peace Memorial Hospital was officially opened on 23 October 1931 (25) and, on 27 October, the remaining patients in the cottage hospital were transferred to the new facility. (26)

Despite being known as the Peace Memorial Hospital, the new Public Hospitals Act 1929, which commenced on 1 November 1929, listed the hospital on its Second Schedule as incorporated with the name 'Manly District Hospital'. (27) Second Schedule Hospitals were public, incorporated, and governed by their own boards. (28)

In its first Annual Report following its establishment by the Public Hospitals Act 1929, the Hospitals Commission of NSW, in developing a scheme of classification to 'fit the conditions prevailing in the State', classified Manly as a Grade B metropolitan Acute hospital in the 'General' category. Grade B General hospitals were defined as those which conformed to the general specifications of Grade 'A' institutions - that is, a daily average of over 150 occupied beds with a range of medical and surgical services - but which did not provide any or all of a school for clinical instruction, a research laboratory or obstetrics or paediatrics. (29) For the year ending 30 June 1930, the Commission reported that Manly had 54 beds, had treated 906 in-patients and had 4229 out-patient attendances. (30)

As early as March 1928, Manly had been formally recognised by the Nurses Registration Board as a training school for general nurses (31) and, by 1953, training in midwifery had been added. (32) In August 1968 the hospital was approved as a training school for Nursing Aides (33) and, in 1992, it received teaching hospital status from the University of Sydney. (34)

A maternity unit was opened in September 1952 (35) and by June the following year, 533 babies had already been born there. (36)

In December 1983, subsequent to the government's piloting of area health services boards (37), the hospital was officially renamed 'The Manly and District Hospital and Area Health Service'. (38)

In 2015, Manly Hospital was part of the Northern Sydney Local Health District and, with Mona Vale Hospital, formed the Northern Beaches Health Service. (39) It was a teaching hospital of Sydney University's Northern Clinical School and had a bed capacity of 217. (40) It had an emergency department and critical care unit and provided elective and emergency surgery including vascular, urology, orthopaedic and plastic surgery. (41)

In connection with the construction of the new Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest, due for completion in 2018, it was planned to close Manly Hospital. (42)

Endnotes
1. Sydney Morning Herald, 29 July 1890, p.3 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13774064 (accessed 7 December 2016).
2. Sydney Morning Herald, 25 September 1890, p.6 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13789195 (accessed 7 December 2016).
3. Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1895, p.6 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13982944 (accessed 9 December 2016).
4. Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 1896, p.6 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14045831 (accessed 9 December 2016).
5. Evening News, 7 March 1896, p.2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/109920212 (accessed 9 December 2016).
6. Evening News, 17 March 1896, p.7 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/109915338 (accessed 9 December 2016).
7. Sydney Morning Herald, 16 April 1896, p.6 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14045831 (accessed 9 December 2016).
8. Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 1896, p.3 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14054944 (accessed 9 December 2016).
9. NSW Government Gazette No.493, 26 June 1896, p.4383.
10. Appropriation Act of 1896-97 (60 Vic. No.33).
11. Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 1896, p.3 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14079633 (accessed 9 December 2016).
12. Sunday Times, 13 December 1896, p.5 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130410113 (accessed 12 December 2016).
13. Public Hospitals Act 1898 (Act No.16, 1898), Section 3(a), Second Schedule.
14. The Sun, 6 February 1924, p.10 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224572542 (accessed 9 December 2016).
15. Sydney Morning Herald, 22 November 1924, p.1 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28072320 224572542 (accessed 9 December 2016).
16. The Manly Hospital Act 1924 (Act No.55, 1924).
17. NSW Government Gazette No.118, 3 September 1926, p.3739.
18. Sydney Morning Herald, 5 January 1927, p.9 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16345136 (accessed 9 December 2016).
19. NSW Government Gazette No.153, 19 November 1926 p.4951.
20. Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 1928, p.10 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16436567 (accessed 9 December 2016).
21. Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1928, p.55 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1928-29 Vol.3, p.706.
22. Evening News, 28 November 1928, p.11 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/117466582 (accessed 9 December 2016).
23. Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1930, p.34 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1930-31-32 Vol.5, p.1.
24. Report of the Department of Public Works for the year ended 30th June 1931, p.91 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1930-31-32 Vol.5, p.47.
25. Sydney Morning Herald, 26 October 1931, p.11 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16810911 (accessed 9 December 2016).
26. The Sun, 27 October 1931, p.11 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223669503 (accessed 9 December 2016).
27. Public Hospitals Act 1929 (Act No.8, 1929), s.3, Second Schedule; NSW Government Gazette No.182, 4 October 1929, p.4085.
28. NSW Government Directory, 1999, p.189.
29. Annual Report of the Hospitals Commission for the year ended 30 June 1930, pp.6-8 in Parliamentary Papers 1930-31-32 vol.1, p.629.
30. Annual Reports of the Hospitals Commission of New South Wales for the years ended 30th June 1932 and 30th June 1933, p.23 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1934-35 Vol.1, p.545.
31. 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.
32. List of Hospitals Recognised as Training Schools by the Nurses' Registration Board of New South Wales, 16 January 1953. NSW Government Gazette No.17, 16 January 1953, p.155.
33. NSW Government Gazette No.101, 23 August 1968, p.3417.
34. University of Sydney Northern Clinical School About Us - Manly Hospital http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/northern/about/hospitals/manly.php (accessed 9 December 2016).
35. NRS 21230, Register of births, 26/09/1952-22/07/1955.
36. Report of the Hospitals Commission of New South Wales for the year ended 30th June 1953, p.16 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1954-55 Vol.4, p.75.
37. Report of the Department of Health for the year ended 30 June 1984, p.5 in NSW Parliamentary Papers 1984-85-86 Vol.11, No.172.
38. NSW Government Gazette No.176, 23 December 1983, p.5887.
39. Northern Sydney Local Health District Clinical Services Plan 2015-2022, 31 March 2015, p.6 http://www.nslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/AboutUs/publications/Documents/ClinicalServicesPlan2015_2022.pdf (accessed 6 April 2016).
40. University of Sydney Northern Clinical School About Us - Manly Hospital http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/northern/about/hospitals/manly.php (accessed 9 December 2016).
41. Loc. cit.
42. Northern Sydney Local Health District Clinical Services Plan 2015-2022, op. cit., pp.6, 51.