Sydney Hospital for Sick Children recognised as a teaching hospital in 1884
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
The Sydney Hospital for Sick Children[1] was founded in 1880 and originally sited on Glebe Point Road, Glebe. Dr Alfred Roberts, a surgeon, who already had played a key role in the founding administration of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Coast Hospital became one of the first surgeons of the Sydney Hospital for Sick Children, later its first consulting surgeon. However, perhaps his greatest input was his provision of expertise in hospital construction and administration.
Some of the other Faculty members associated with the establishment of the hospital were Professor Anderson Stuart as Hospital Physician[1] and Dr Robert Scot Skirving.[1] Dr Charles Clubbe, a surgeon with a strong interest in child welfare, was appointed honorary surgeon at the outset, a role he maintained until his death nearly fifty years later.[1] According to Hispley’s early account of the hospital, Dr Ada Affleck and Dr Julia Carlile-Thomas, both early women graduates of the Faculty, were appointed Resident Medical Officers, making them the first women to secure positions on the staff of a public hospital in Sydney. In 1884, the hospital was recognised by the Faculty as a place of clinical instruction in child health, but with the opening of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the Faculty no longer solely relied upon the institution. Some clinical instruction was continued during the next few decades, but it was not until 1924 that a more formal arrangement was negotiated to provide clinical instruction in paediatrics to final year medical students.
- Next article in timeline: Callan Park Hospital for the Insane Becomes a Teaching Hospital in 1885