The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

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The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is an acute care teaching hospital in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. It provides a range of health services, including inpatient, outpatient, surgical, emergency and mental health services.HistoryThe hospital opened in 1954 as a maternity hospital and expanded its services in 1959. At the request of the Government of South Australia, the hospital was named after Queen Elizabeth II, who had recently acceded to the Australian throne. A large portrait of the Queen, together with a letter authorising TQEH name and granting Arms to the Hospital, decorates the principal foyer.Originally designed to service the western suburbs of Adelaide, TQEH is now the second-most utilised hospital in South Australia by patients from the central northern region of Adelaide.TQEH was the first unit in Australia to perform kidney transplantation successfully, on 21 February 1964. The hospital houses the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA), which collects national statistics on the treatment of those patients with end-stage renal failure.In 2002, Premier Mike Rann, who had campaigned in Opposition against plans to privatise the Hospital, announced a massive ten-year redevelopment of TQEH. In 2005, Premier Rann and Health Minister Lea Stevens unveiled plans for TQEH's second-stage redevelopment. It included construction of a new three-level inpatient building for maternity, surgical, oncology and renal dialysis patients (containing 272 surgical and medical beds), and a 580-place car park building. In 2009 Premier Rann opened the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Building, incorporating the Basil Hetzel Institute for Medical Research.