St John of God Subiaco Hospital is a private hospital in Subiaco, Western Australia, founded in .
History Archbishop of Perth Matthew Gibney invited eight sisters of St John of God to Western Australia in 1895 to help people with typhoid fever during the 1890s gold rush. He provided land for them to set up a hospital in a timber building in Subiaco, which opened on 19 April 1898 with fifteen beds, increased to thirty by 1900. The hospital accepted all patients – private, reduce-fee and free-bed – regardless of denomination, and distributed them throughout the buildings so that sisters were unaware of their status.Sisters of St John of God, "Our Founding Story", Retrieved 2011-02-28.
In 1939, the hospital had the second-largest maternity department in WA after King Edward Memorial Hospital. Babies born to single mothers were often adopted out, sometimes forcibly. In 2011, the hospital was among many institutions named in submissions to a Federal parliamentary inquiry into forced adoption in Australia. Files containing details of adoptions are kept at the hospital and some can be accessed by mothers, adoptees and their direct descendants.
The hospital was the first in Western Australia to install a da Vinci robotic surgical system.Australian Private Hospital Association official magazine (2008-04). "Private Hospital", pp.30. Retrieved 2011-03-11. It is the oldest surviving hospital in Australia run by St John of God Health Care.Sisters of St John of God, "Foundations". Retrieved 2011-03-11.
Facilities St John of God Subiaco Hospital has 578beds and 20operating theatres.St John of God Subiaco Hospital, "About Us". Retrieved 2011-03-11. The hospital also has an outpatient clinic, day surgery units and a conference centre, along with a cancer centre named after the Bendat family.FMC Australia, "The Signature", pp.1. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
Personnel Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon works at the hospital as an obstetrician and gynaecologist.
Notable persons born at St John of God Hospital
Michael Gannon Gina Rinehart
See also List of hospitals in Western Australia List of hospitals in Australia
References
Further reading St John of God Subiaco at Trove website
External links
Sisters of St John of God website