The Children's Hospital at Westmead

Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children
Hospital entrance
Geography
Location	Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33.8017°S 150.992°E / -33.8017; 150.992
Organisation
Care system	Public Medicare (AU)
Type	Teaching
Affiliated university	University of Sydney
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Speciality	Children's hospital
History
Opened	1880
Links
Website	http://www.chw.edu.au/
Lists	Hospitals in Australia

The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (otherwise known as The Children's Hospital at Westmead) is a children's hospital in Sydney, Australia.

It is one of three children's hospitals in NSW located on Hawkesbury Road in Westmead and is affiliated with the University of Sydney.

On July 1st, 2010 it became part of the newly formed 'Sydney Children's Hospital Network (Randwick and Westmead) incorporating the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children'.

Name and relocation

The hospital opened in 1880 as the Sydney Hospital for Sick Children by a group of concerned citizens worried about the health of the younger members of society in New South Wales. It soon out-grew the small building in which it was housed at Glebe Point and had to move in 1906 to Camperdown, where it stayed for 89 years before relocating to its current location of Westmead in 1995 to better serve the growing populations of western Sydney. This relocation involved amalgamation with most of the paediatric services of nearby Westmead Hospital (apart from neonates) to form a new hospital with a new name; initially "The New Children's Hospital" and more recently "The Children's Hospital at Westmead". The official name of the hospital; the "Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children" is retained.

Some notable individuals connected to the history of the Children's Hospital are:

• Sir Charles Percy Barlee Clubbe (1854 - 1932) - who from 1904 to 1932 was the head of the board of management, can perhaps be called the father of the Children's Hospital and is sometime also mentioned as one of the fore-fathers of Australian orthopaedic surgery Sir Charles Clubbe has a ward named after him.
• Lady Marian Allen, wife of Sir George Wigram Allen (1824-1885), helped to found the Children's Hospital (Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children) at the Glebe.
• Dr Margaret Harper (1879-1964), paediatrician, who discovered the difference between coeliac disease and cystic fibrosis of the pancreas in 1930.
• Dr Norman McAlister Gregg (1892-1966), ophthalmologist, was the first person to identify German measles as a cause for congenital deformities.

The New South Wales Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health (NSW CAAH) is located at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. The Centre seeks to improve the health and well-being of young people aged 12 – 24 in NSW, Australia. NSW CAAH key focus areas include developing information and resources; capacity building to increase workers’ skills and confidence in adolescent health; supporting applied research; advocacy & policy development to increase leadership and action for adolescent health.

Notable patients

• Francis Chan (born 1991): the youngest liver transplant patient in Australia at three months old. He underwent two transplants three days apart as the first transplant failed until the last-minute call came in time for another transplant to save his life. He currently attends St Andrew's Cathedral School.
• Sophie Delezio (born 2001):

• 
  Medical Centre

See also

• Westmead Hospital
• Sydney Children's Hospital