HOSPITALS FOUNDED BY WOMEN PHYSICIANS

Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children , N. S.W., AUSTRALIA Mary C. Puckey, M. D.

T WENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO Dr. Lucy Gul- for that patient, but that first year 2,421 indi- lett returned from Melbourne after at- vidual patients had attended, including 773 chil- tending the twenty-fifth annual meeting dren, showing the need for such a hospital. At the (a disease the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital outset a venereal clinic was established; of functions has developed hospital founded and staffed by women for women this same clinic still and largest its in Australia. and children) full of enthusiasm for their work into the of type foot- The New Hospital and a burning ambition to follow in their opened as a general medical hospital has steps. Dr. Gullett and Dr. Bif in, two of Sydney's and surgical and remained so up in branches best known women physicians, forthwith called a to the present, training women all of The Directors hope later meeting, which was attended also by Dame Con- medicine and surgery. build block. stance D'Arcy, Dr. Susie O'Reilly, Dr. Margaret to a separate maternity first Lady Forster, Harper, and Dr. Emma Buckley. At the annual general meeting General, At that meeting plans were formulated for the wife of the Governor presided and the founding of Rachel Forster Hospital for Women first committee was appointed with Lady Anderson President. This and Children, Redfern, . Funds as committee undertook the entire hospital its financial were non-existent. Women doctors still had to management of the and fight prejudice and were still finding it difficult to affairs, releasing the medical women to concen- get hospital appointments. The new hospital was trate on the clinical work. to overcome these difficulties. It would afford From the outset the hospital managed to balance medical women an opportunity to practice their its budget and to expand. Two years later a profession and would provide medical, surgical thirteen-room house in George Street, Redfern, for hospital and obstetric treatment for women and children was purchased £3,500 and the was for by qualified women medical practitioners. renamed the Rachel Forster Hospital Women Children, in honour Her Excellency Lady A sum of £1,000 was raised by the women doc- and of Forster, has interest tors and their friends. A house, sadly in need of who always taken a great in institution. repair, was bought in Surry Hills-the center of the In 1925 first Resident Medical Officer, Sydney's poorest area-and there The New Hos- the Dr. Leonie Amphlett, first Matron, pital for Women opened in January, 1922. The and the resident Miss Livingstone, The for house was so old and dilapidated and funds were were appointed. need for in-patients becoming so low that the women doctors themselveshad to accommodation was more in 1926, Lady Denison do the cleaning, painting, and many repairs; the urgent and, opened a new free debt, building was so shaky that weightier patients, for wing of which would accommodate six domestic reasonsof safety, were attended to on the ground patients and the necessary nursing and floor. There was no provision for beds and the staff. Additions were made to the out-patient department work was confined to out-patients. In a few urgent to cope with the rapidly growing year- cases,patients were visited in their own homes. In ly attendances, now 19,086. the early years the medical women undertook all By 1931 the hospital was recognized as a public the management as well as the medical work, hospital under the Hospitals Act of 1929, a big Dr. Lucy Gullett as Honorary Secretary. acting step forward. The first day History one patient attended. Keeping in mind the necessity for further ex- does not relate how many doctors were available pansion the hospital's first Secretary, Miss Kate Ogilvie, M. B.E., in 1930 undertook a tour of in- hospitals hospital Dr. Puckey is Chief Executive Officer, vestigation of and methods in Rachel Forster Hospital. and America. Following this visit a ward unit of 20 beds, an operating theater and

J. A. ad. W. A. -VuL. 5. Na. - 294 RACHEL FORSTER HOSPITAL 295 an out-patient department to handle a daily average of 200 attendances were added. In pursuance of its policy to increase the scope of the hospital's activities, the Board now decided to establish a social service department, and through the generosity of Miss F. M. Gillespie, the Board sent Miss Ogilvie to London to take the almoner's course in training at St. Thomas's Hospital. Subsequently, in 1934, the Almoner Department was opened, the second to be estab- lished in New South Wales. In 1936 the Board placed before the Hospitals Commission of New South Wales the ambitious project of building immediately a 100-bed hospital with appropriate staff quarters. After many set- backs and much discussion as to advisability of undertaking large scale building in such troublous times the foundation stone of the new building was laid in Pitt Street, Redfern, in August, 1940. Finance was supplied by a Government Guar- anteed Loan of £140,000. Lady Wakehurst per- formed the opening ceremony on December 13, 1941. Patients, however, were not admitted until February, 1942. The delay in admitting patients DR. LUCY GULLI: "I'I'

was necessitated by unavoidable delay in complet- ing certain sections of the building, owing to war- time conditions and the necessity of providing ac- commodation in the event of air raids. This was accomplished by providing an emergency theater, wards, and treatment bays in the basement, none of which fortunately were ever needed. Rachel Forster Hospital was now a hospital of 120 beds provided with all ancillary services and appropriate staff quarters. Largely due to the Honourable W. J. McKell, at that time Premier of New South Wales and now Governor General of Australia, sufficient funds were made available to build eighteen additional nurses' bedrooms and a large modern cafeteria at a cost of £75,000; this was completed and in use in February, 1949, and work was commenced on an out-patient department to cost £140,000 in July of the same year. has been Such the outward and visible sign of the growth of Rachel Forster Hospital. At the opening of the new building, Dr. Lucy Gullett mentioned the need for a convalescent home which would provide much needed rest for patients awaiting admission to the hospital, for discharge, for those after and out-patients not The First Hospital in 1922 hospitalization. The Honorary . needing Medical

J. A. M. W. A. -JULY, 1950 296 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION

honour founder Staff of the hospital wishing to a lady, of the hospital and a very great presented Dr. Gullett with a cheque on her retirement in 1943 from her position as Chairman of the Medi- cal Board, this money to form the nucleus of a fund to establish the Lucy Gullett Convalescent Home. This fund was added to by subscribers and supporters of the hospital and in 1947 a large house set in beautiful grounds in an outer suburb was purchased. The Lucy Gullett Convalescent Home was opened by Dr. Kathleen Cuningham, Chairman of the Medical Board, in November, 1947. This home, accommodating twenty-three patients and staff, and supported entirely by pa- tients' payments and voluntary subscriptions and donations, is operating free of debt. The medical and academic work of the hospital has kept pace with this expansion in building projects. With the establishment of the Almoner Department in 1934 the hospital was recognized as a training center for almoners by the New South Wales Institute of Hospital Almoners. When the new hospital was opened in 1942 it was registered as a training school for general nurses. In March, 1949, the recognized the Rachel Forster Hospital as a teach- ing hospital for the general medical and surgical DR. HARRIET BIFFIN

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The Rachel Forster Hospital Today

J. A. M. W. A. -VOL. S, No. ' NEWS OF WOMEN IN MEDICINE 297 training of medical students and sixteen fourth- Puckey, in January, was appointed Chief Exec- year women students commenced their clinical utive Officer. instruction at the Hospital. Thus The Rachel The Board has plans in mind for still further Forster Hospital became the first hospital of its expansion and looks forward confidently to the for kind in Australia to be recognizedas a school future. During War American the clinical instruction of medical undergraduates. the the Medical Wom- Many hundreds of women have contributed to en's Association through the American Women's the growth and development of the Rachel Forster Hospitals made available a sum of money to the Hospital in skilled service and with financial sup- Australian Federation of Medical Women to port. These women have been unstintingly sup- assist any Australian medical women who had by ported in their work many generous men. suffered through the War. Fortunately only a Several Honorary Medical senior positions on the portion of this money was necessary for its Staff held by distinguished Men are medical men. original purpose, and with the consent of the have been hospital in too most generous to the donors the remaining sum divided financial was equally giving support and advice. between the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, Rachel Forster Hospital, once established, has Melbourne, and the Rachel Forster Hospital, been fortunate in securing the sympathetic co- Sydney. With this the Board Rachel financial the Government gift of the operation and support of Forster Hospital for of New South Wales and the Hospitals Com- will purchase equipment the hospital's new out-patient department. This mission. With the expansion of the ac- equipment will bear tivities the Board recognized that certain changes a suitably inscribed plaque as a permanent should be made in the administration. Therefore, reminder of the generosity and kindly thought of her duties when Miss Oglivie resigned to take up the medical women of the United States of as almoner at Sydney Hospital, Dr. Mary C. America.

NEWS OF WOMEN IN MEDICINE

Austria India The fiftieth the beginning anniversary of opening of medi- At the of this year Vellore Christian to women was celebrated in May. Medical College cal education was granted permanent afliiliation One thousand invitations were sent by the Austri- with Madras University as a training for Association college an Medical Women's to universities, M. the B., B. S. degree. Vellore is the only Christian colleagues, officials, and other interested individu- medical college in India and Pakistan offering this als. It was a celebration in which the Austrian training. Medical mission work in these countries Association of University Women and the Austri- is dependent for its existence on Vellore College. an Council of Women joined with the women In Government physicians. *** Dr. Lore Antoine has been medical colleges places are allotted "Gesellschaft basis, elected one of three chairmen of the on a communal and the small Christian first be honored. der Aerzte", the woman to thus community receives only a few places. The pres- ent principal of the college is Dr. Hilda M. Germany Lazarus. The Vellore hospital, with 468 beds, German Dr. Gabriele Strecker writes that a has been built up on the work which Dr. Ida S. Medical Women's Association formed in was Scudder began in 1900. It is a voluntary hospital Munich on March 18, and a constitution was and receives a small government grant. Forty by delegates from all the existing groups adopted in Britain, U. S.A., Canada, Western Germany. There missionary societies of medical women in Bonn Parliament, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark are helping to are 30 women members of the Dr. Victoria Stein- College, Friends Vellore of whom two are physicians, support the as are the of Societies Great biss, and Dr. Ellinor Hubert. in Britain. DR. LUCY GULLETT