The provision for Sick Children at Wellington Hospital

The 1876 Toxward design for a new hospital in Newtown did not include any designated ward space for sick children.  

The original Wellington Hospital in Newtown

From 1881, when the hospital opened, any child admitted was placed in one of the four adult wards.  

Within a few years the need for a children’s ward was recognised and plans were revealed in 1886, a year in which thirty six children under the age of ten years were admitted.

The story of services for children is divided into time periods:

      1886 - 1912:    Before the building of a children's hospital

      1912 - 1988:    The first children's hospital - the King Edward V11 Memorial Hospital for Children

      1988 - 2020:    The second children's hospital.

      2021 -         :    The third children's hospital (under construction in 2020)

Documentation of the senior nursing and medical staff who worked in the children's hospitals is included in each time period (beginning in 1912)