Sydney Hospital

Sydney Hospital, once called the Rum Hospital, is one of the most important hospitals in Sydney, Australia. It is located on Macquarie Street in the middle of the city and is the oldest hospital in the country, starting in 1788. Today, it has around 113 beds for patients and about 400 staff members who help care for people.

The hospital is special because it focuses on helping people with eye problems and hand injuries. People from all over New South Wales come here for these services. It also has a small emergency department with six beds for urgent care.

Since 1909, Sydney Hospital has been a place where doctors learn and study. It works closely with the University of Sydney, especially with its medical school. The hospital is also home to many research groups studying heart health, cancer, and other important medical topics.

Early history

Many people who came to Australia on the first ships were very sick. They had diseases like dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and typhoid. Leaders set up a tent hospital to help them. Later, a small wooden hospital came on another ship.

When Governor Macquarie arrived in 1810, he saw the tent hospital was not good enough. He picked a place for a new hospital and built a road called Macquarie Street to get there. The government would not pay for it, so he made a deal with some businessmen. They could sell a special drink called rum to help pay for the hospital. The hospital was finished in 1816, but it was built with weak wood and stone. It needed many repairs over the years.

Alternative uses

The Sydney Hospital was built bigger than the city needed. It had a main building and two smaller wings. Some parts of the hospital were used for things other than medicine.

The northern wing was sometimes a courtroom and later a meeting place for government leaders. The southern wing stored items and later held important government papers. There were plans to use it for making money, but those plans changed.

The middle building of the hospital was torn down and rebuilt in 1894.

Lucy Osburn

New South Wales leader Henry Parkes asked Florence Nightingale for help to improve the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary. In March 1868, Lucy Osburn arrived with five trained nurses. She worked hard to clean up the old infirmary. They also cared for the Duke of Edinburgh, who was hurt at Clontarf.

Lucy and her team faced many challenges. Some people were surprised and uncomfortable with women working as nurses. Lucy faced opposition from some doctors.

A Royal Commission in 1873 praised Lucy’s efforts to raise nursing standards. Some of Lucy’s nurses went on to lead other hospitals. By the time Lucy left for England in 1884, she had helped start modern nursing in New South Wales.

In 1881, the Infirmary was renamed Sydney Hospital. Lucy Osburn passed away in Harrogate in 1891. Her successor described her as an outstanding woman who believed nursing was an important and caring job. Lucy often told new nurses, “You nurses should exist for patients, not they for you.”

The Nightingale Wing

Nurse training in Australia began here in 1868. Florence Nightingale sent Lucy Osburn and five other nurses from England to start this training. In 1869, a special building called the Nightingale Wing was built. It was made of brick and sandstone and had a colorful fountain. The building was designed to be a home for the hospital’s female staff.

Restoration

By 1984, the old Rum Hospital building was fully restored. Together with its "twin," the former Mint, it is the oldest building in Macquarie Street and the oldest public building in the City of Sydney. It is said that no other buildings in Sydney have had such a long and important role in the history of the state.

Recent work

The Sydney Eye Hospital started at Millers Point in 1882 and moved to Woolloomooloo in 1922. It became part of Sydney Hospital in 1996. Recent work includes adding a big car park with a special area for eye emergencies, new patient rooms, and an operating room on the top floor. This new building replaced the Travers building, which many people did not like, and it made the campus open up to The Domain.

A new Clinical Services building was completed in 1995 to look like the old buildings and was opened on October 30, 1996.