The Royal Hospital for Women (RHW) is a specialist

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 emergen ...

for women and babies located in the suburb of Randwick in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The Royal Hospital for Women shares the Randwick Hospitals' Campus site with the

Prince of Wales Hospital Prince of Wales Hospital is a large of Tertiary referral hospital and large of teaching hospital from Faculty of Medicine in Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin, New Territories in Hong Kong.. Named after Charles, Prince of Wales (now ...

and the

Sydney Children's Hospital Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, is an Australian children's hospital located in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. On 1 July 2010 it became part of the newly formed Sydney Children's Hospitals Network (Randwick and Westmead ...

, as well as the Prince of Wales Private Hospital.

History

The RHW began life in 1820 as a 'lying-in' hospital under auspices of the

Benevolent Society The Benevolent Society, founded by Edward Smith Hall in 1813, is Australia's first and oldest charity. The society is an independent, not-for-profit organization whose main goals include helping families, older Australians and people with disabili ...

Elizabeth Macquarie Elizabeth Macquarie (; 1778–1835) was the second wife of Lachlan Macquarie, who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. She played a significant role in the establishment of the colony and is recognised in the naming of many A ...

, wife of the then

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the A ...

Lachlan Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, an ...

chaired a committee of the Society to establish the hospital. By 1888 the RHW (then known as the Benevolent Society Asylum) became affiliated to the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

as a training hospital. Between 1901 and 1997 the hospital operated from its site in

Paddington, New South Wales Paddington is an upscale inner-city area of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Located east of the Sydney central business district, Paddington lies across two local government areas. The portion south of Oxford Street l ...

before moving to Randwick. In 1904 the hospital was granted royal patronage by

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

and became the Royal Hospital for Women.

Services

The RHW reportedly provides the following services annually: * Deliver more than 3,700 babies; * Care of more than 600 premature babies; * Treat more than 400 women for gynaecological cancer; * Provide breast cancer surgery for more than 80 women; * Attend to over 450 women requiring acute care services; * Help more than 600 women through endo-gynaecological procedures; * Provide care for over 10,000 women who rely on a special partnership with the RHW. The RHW forms a part of the

South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service (SESIAHS) was formed in 2005 from the amalgamation of the Illawarra Area Health Service and South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service. It was disbanded on 1 January 2011 as part of the Nationa ...

and is assisted by the fundraising efforts of the Royal Hospital for Women Foundation.

References

{{Authority control Hospitals established in 1820 Hospitals in Sydney Hospital buildings completed in 1997 Organisations based in Australia with royal patronage Teaching hospitals in Australia 1820 establishments in Australia Paddington, New South Wales Randwick, New South Wales