St George Hospital, Sydney

The St George Hospital and Community Health Service is part of the South East Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service and is located in Kogarah, a southern suburb of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located next to the St. Patrick's Kogarah Primary School.

It is a tertiary referral hospital, and an accredited principal teaching Hospital of the University of New South Wales. It has a designated medical trauma service and is the Medical Retrieval Service Coordination Centre for NSW. The Hospital's departments include anaesthesia, critical care, surgery, cancer care, medicine, women's and children's health, mental health, community health and medical imaging.

As a major tertiary and teaching hospital, St George accepts patients from other parts of Sydney, NSW and beyond. It primarily serves about 250,000 residents of southern Sydney, in the St George area bounded by Botany Bay, Cooks River in the north, Georges River in the south and Salt Pan Creek in the west. Approximately 35% of the St George area's residents are from a non-English speaking background. The Hospital is also the nearest provider of specialist medical services for around 200,000 residents of the Sutherland Shire.

In the 2002-2003 financial year there were more than 45,000 admissions (including day-only), and more than 723,000 outpatient treatments were administered. The Hospital has approximately 500 beds and more than 2200 staff (full-time equivalents) and is one of the largest in Sydney.

History
St George Hospital began operation in November 1894, as a humble "cottage hospital". It became a district hospital in 1924 and began performing surgery. By 1934, it was equivalent to any other district hospital in metropolitan Sydney. In 1964, it became a teaching hospital with specialised departments and became known as The St George Hospital. In the late 1980's it underwent a $A200 million redevelopment into a tertiary teaching hospital, providing the people of southern Sydney with specialist healthcare services closer to home. In 1998, there was an unsuccessful attempt by the NSW government to transfer St Vincents Hospital from its site in Darlinghurst to the St George Hospital site. The plan was abandoned due to community opposition to the loss of the St George name, and uncertainties about the future of the obstetrics and gynaecology service under the St Vincents Catholic Church- run administration.