Waikato Hospital is a major regional

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

in Hamilton, New Zealand. It provides specialised and emergency healthcareWaikato Hospital
(from the Waikato District Health Board website. Retrieved 2007-10-09.) for the Midlands and Waikato area with patients referred there from feeder hospitals like Whakatāne, Lakes area, Tauranga, Thames, Tokoroa and

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. The city lies on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompass ...

.Waikato Hospital in Overload for Fourth Day in Row
- Waikato District Health Board media release, via ''Scoop'', 10 August 2007

Facilities

Waikato District Health Board employs more than 6000 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 372,865 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand. Specialist services include: The centre is the main trauma facility for the area, and close connection to road and air transport ( air ambulances, helicopter or fixed wing plane) allow patient-hospital transport in less than an hour from any place in the region. Waikato Hospital is home to one of New Zealand's four burns units. The unit primarily serves patients from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Taranaki regions.

Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre

The Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre is the inpatient mental health unit for the Waikato DHB, located on the Waikato Hospital site. The centre consists of seven secure wards, including two forensic psychiatric wards providing mental health services to the Department of Corrections. In October 2019, the New Zealand Government announced NZ$100 million in funding for replacement of the facility, dependent on a final business case due in 2021.

Puna Whiti

Puna Whiti is a small rehabilitation ward for mental health patients. It is located across the road from the Henry Bennett Centre on Hague Road. It can only accommodate five patients at a time.

Older Persons and Rehabilitation Building

The Older Persons and Rehabilitation Building is a mental health facility purpose-built for providing mental health, health and rehabilitation services for older people. It is on Pembroke Street across the road from the main hospital, and is connected to the main hospital buildings by a pedestrian bridge. Ward OPR1 has 15 beds.

Other services

The hospital has an academic division of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Auckland, acting as a teaching and training centre for undergraduates and postgraduate medical and allied health science students. There is a dedicated training facility, the Bryant Education Centre. Research is also undertaken in cooperation with the

Ruakura Agricultural Research Centre Ruakura is a semi-rural suburb of Hamilton City, in the Waikato region of New Zealand. The University of Waikato is nearby. The area lies to the east of urban Hamilton and to the west of State Highway 1B (a variant of State Highway 1 which avo ...

and the University of Waikato. The hospital also has five

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

s who help perform social services and provide counselling, assisted by volunteers. The services are part-funded by the Ministry of Health, churches and donations. The hospital also operates 'Hilda Ross House', a hospital hotel owned by the District Health Board.

History

The foundation stone of the first ward of the hospital to be built in brick was laid on 1 July 1905 by Andrew Primrose, Esq., J.P.''Waikato Argus'', volume XVIII, issue 2912, 26 June 1905 The decision to expand the hospital had been made the previous year by the Waikato District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board (of which Andrew Primrose was a member since its institution) since the demand for admission had more than three times outgrown the accommodation.''New Zealand Herald'', volume XLII, issue 12909, 4 July 1905 During the ceremony to lay the foundation stone Primrose was presented with a silver trowel (which was on display prior to the ceremony in the window of a shop owned by a Mr. Howden) which was engraved with the inscription: Waikato Hospital Foundation Stone Trowel Presented to Andrew Primrose July 1st 1905

Waikato Hospital Foundation Stone Trowel Presented to Andrew Primrose July 1st 1905

Diggers Bar and Café in Hamilton West was once the office of the Waikato District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. Plastic surgeon Sir

Archibald McIndoe Sir Archibald Hector McIndoe (4 May 1900 – 11 April 1960) was a New Zealand plastic surgeon who worked for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He improved the treatment and rehabilitation of badly burned aircrew. Early life Archi ...

trained as a house surgeon at Waikato hospital prior to working in the US and UK with his cousin Harold Gillies. Mary Reidy was also a key figure in the preservation of the hospital.

References

External links

Waikato Hospital
(Official hospital website from the Waikato District Health Board)

(Useful hospital information on a single page) {{Coord, 37, 48, 15.51, S, 175, 16, 56.26, E, region:NZ, display=title Buildings and structures in Hamilton, New Zealand Teaching hospitals in New Zealand Hospitals established in 1886