Adelaide Children's Hospital (1878 - 1989)

Summary

The Adelaide Children's Hospital was a charity hospital started by Dr Allan Campbell. In his proposal to address the quality of life and high premature death rates among destitute and poor children, he was supported by a group of prominent Adelaide citizens with members of the medical profession. The first in-patient was admitted in June 1879. In 1893 the first woman to graduate in medicine from the University of Adelaide, Laura Fowler, was appointed to the staff. The Hospital's first laboratory was established in 1897 to diagnose typhoid, diphtheria and tuberculosis. Other facilities ran by the Hospital included the Queen Victoria Convalescent Home for Children at Mount Lofty (1898 - 1940s) and the Mareeba Babies' Hospital, Woodville (1951 - 1960). From the 1970s parents were encouraged to be closely involved in the treatment of their children. In 1989 the Hospital amalgamated with the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital to become the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children (later the Women's and Children's Hospital).

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Nursing in South Australia : first hundred years 1837-1937 (Adelaide: South Australian Trained Nurses' Centenary Committee, 1938), 348 pp. Details
• Barbalet, Margaret, The Adelaide Children's Hospital, 1876-1976 (North Adelaide: The Hospital, 1975), 224 pp. Details
• Fotheringham, Brian, A continuing history of the Adelaide Children's Hospital, 1976-1989 (North Adelaide: Children, Youth and Women's Health Service, History and Heritage Committee, 2009), 76 pp. Details
• Seidel, Marilyn, Our common bond : a history of nursing education at the Adelaide Children's Hospital, 1876-1989 (Norwood, S.A.: Peacock Publications, 2009), 288 pp. Details

Resources

• 'Adelaide Children's Hospital (1878 - 1989)', History of Homeopathy in Australia, Centre for Australian Homeopathic History, 2024, https://www.historyofhomeopathy.au/hospitals/item/362-adelaide-childrens-hospital.html. https://www.historyofhomeopathy.au/. Details
• Women's and Children's Hospital, History of the WCH, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, 2024, https://www.wch.sa.gov.au/about/wch-history. Details

See also

• Adelaide AZ, 'Allan Campbell uses homeopathy to advance Adelaide public health and to start the children's hospital', Adelaide, 2024. https://adelaideaz.com/articles/dr-allan-campbell-brings-homeopathic-philosophy-to-improve-public-health--start-children-s-hospital. Details
• Edgar, Suzanne, 'Campbell, Allan (1936 - 1898), medical practitioner and administrator' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1979), p. 542. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/campbell-allan-5482. Details