Dandenong Hospital
(opened 1942; part of Southern Health since 1995)
1942 |
Opened as a small country hospital that was originally known as Dandenong and District Hospital. |
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Robert Swords, who had worked hard to establish the hospital, was killed in an air accident in Britain. The Hospital Committee decided that a memorial fund opened in his name would allow a children’s ward to be built. |
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There were 187 births at the hospital |
1947 |
There were 265 births at the hospital. |
1953 |
Around 40 babies a month were being delivered in a midwifery section designed to accommodate 6 babies. At that time mothers and babies stayed in hospital for about 2 weeks. |
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Following the acquisition of additional land by the hospital, a children’s ward and additions to the midwifery section were opened |
1959 |
The City of Dandenong was proclaimed. As the fastest growing municipality in Australia, there were predictions that it would become the state’s second city. The opening of the hospital extensions by the new mayor, Cr George Andrews, were part of the City’s celebrations. |
1960 |
There were plans to convert Dandenong Hospital into a Base Hospital that would provide for a larger region, a region that was rapidly changing from countryside to industrial suburb. |
1968 |
It was decided to redevelop the hospital’s original building as a modern maternity hospital. |
1971 |
In the rapidly growing district, there was an ever-increasing demand for maternity beds as the annual number of births peaked at 2003. |
1975 |
By this time the term “Base Hospital”, used for large country hospitals had been dropped. It was now a suburban teaching hospital. |
1987 |
TV newsreader Jo Pearson opened the Family Birth Centre. Here women could have their babies in homelike surroundings with their families present, while still having professional care. |
1995 |
Dandenong Hospital was integrated into the new Southern Health Care Network, which continues to operate as Southern Health today. |