Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (TQEH) is a 340 bed acute tertiary referral hospital in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.

History

The hospital opened in 1954. At the request of the Government of South Australia, the hospital was named after Queen Elizabeth II who had recently acceded to the Australian throne. A large portrait of the Queen, together with a letter authorising the QEH name and granting Arms to the Hospital, decorates the principal foyer.

Originally designed to service the western area but is now the second most utilised hospital in South Australia by patients from the central northern region of Adelaide.[1]

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was the first unit in Australia to perform kidney transplantation successfully. The hospital houses the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA) which collects national statistics on the treatment of those patients with end stage renal failure.[2]

In 2002 Premier Mike Rann, who had campaigned in Opposition against plans to privatise the hospital, announced a massive ten-year redevelopment of the QEH. In 2005 Premier Rann and Health Minister Lea Stevens unveiled plans for the QEH's $120 million second stage redevelopment. It included construction of a new three-level inpatient building for maternity, surgical, oncology and renal dialysis patients, and a 580 place car park building.[3] In 2009 Premier Rann opened the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Building, incorporating the Basil Hetzel Institute for Medical Research.[4]

Teaching

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a teaching hospital for the University of Adelaide's medical school and provides clinical attachments in a variety of specialties for undergraduate medical students, including Medicine, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, and Psychiatry.

The Discipline of Medicine has broad ranging functions in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research and clinical service and management. The Discipline of Surgery has a large academic surgical department and is a major centre for surgical research and postgraduate teaching in a wide range of fields.[5]

Services

The hospital provides mental health services through community response teams, TQEH's Emergency Department and via a 40 bed purpose built inpatient unit. The inpatient unit, Cramond Clinic, was named after Professor William Cramond the foundation Chair in Psychiatry[6] at the University of Adelaide. Cramond pioneered the delivery of mental health care to renal patients at TQEH in the 1960s.[7] In 2002-3, the TQEH community mental health teams provided services to 48,621 individuals which was the second largest number for services in the central northern health region.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Health Service Profiles, Central Northern Adelaide Health Service, Government of South Australia, March 2004
  2. ↑ ANZDATA website
  3. ↑ "Queen Elizabeth Hospital's stage two detailed", ABC online, 11 Oct 2005
  4. ↑ "Medical Research Powerhouse Opens", Daily Telegraph, March 1 2009
  5. ↑ Maddern GJ. Middleton PF. Tooher R. Babidge WJ. Evaluating new surgical techniques in Australia: the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures-Surgical experience. Surgical Clinics of North America. 86:115-28,2006.
  6. ↑ A biography of psychiatry. W.A.Dibden held by The Barr-Smith Library, University of Adelaide, South Australia
  7. ↑ Cramond WA. Court JH. Higgins BA. Knight PR. Lawrence JR. Psychological screening of potential donors in a renal homotransplantation programme, v 113:1213-21;1967.
  8. ↑ Health Service Profiles, Central Northern Adelaide Health Service, Government of South Australia, March 2004

Coordinates: 34°53′02″S 138°32′00″E / 34.8838°S 138.5333°E