The Prince of Wales Hospital Randwick is a 440 bed major public teaching hospital located in Sydney's eastern suburb of Randwick, providing a full range of hospital services to the people of New South Wales, Australia. The hospital has strong ties to the University of New South Wales.
Prince of Wales Hospital Randwick had its origins in 1852 with the formation of the Society for Destitute Children which established the Asylum for Destitute Children with the first building opened on 21 March 1858 inPaddington. After an appeal for funds in 1870, the Catherine Hayes Hospital opened, reputedly with plans approved by Florence Nightingale. In 1915, during the First World War the hospital was converted by the NSW Government into a military hospital and then a repatriation hospital, and renamed the Fourth Australian Repatriation Hospital. In 1927 an association between the Coast Hospital and the Fourth Australian Repatriation Hospital at Randwick began. With the opening of the Concord Repatriation General Hospital in 1953, the hospital was renamed the Prince of Wales Hospital, and operated as an annexe of Sydney Hospital. Restructuring and hospital redevelopment has continued to occur to enhance the medical and patient facilities of the hospital, including amalgamation with the Prince Henry Hospital, Royal South Sydney Hospital and the Eastern Suburbs Hospital.
Now a major teaching hospital providing excellent healthcare to the south eastern Sydney community and specialist services to the state of NSW.
We would like to acknowledge the contribution made to the histories of our hospitals by Clement R. Broughton, author of "A Coast Chronicle: The History of the Prince Henry Hospital, 1881 - 1981" and Maylean Cordia, author of "Nurses At Little Bay: A Study of the Lives and Times of Members of the Nursing Profession and the Fortunes of their Training School, The Prince Henry Hospital of Sydney, previously known as The Coast Hospital, Little Bay, 1881 - 1990" (Prince Henry Trained Nurses Association, 1995).