Westmead Hospital

Westmead Hospital
NSW Health
Westmead Hospital
Geography
Location	Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33°48′16″S 150°59′19″E / 33.8045°S 150.9886°E / -33.8045; 150.9886Coordinates: 33°48′16″S 150°59′19″E / 33.8045°S 150.9886°E / -33.8045; 150.9886
Organisation
Care system	Public Medicare (Australia)
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	University of Sydney
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	975
History
Founded	1978
Links
Website	www.wslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Westmead-Hospital/
Lists	Hospitals in Australia

Westmead Hospital is a major 975 bed tertiary hospital in Sydney, Australia, opened on 10 November 1978 by the then Premier, Neville Wran, and guest of honour was former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. It is a teaching hospital of Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney and forms part of the Western Sydney Local Health District.

The hospital serves a population of 1.85m people and is located on one of the largest health and hospital campuses in Australia. In 2008/09, Westmead Hospital provided more than 1.3m occasions of care to outpatients, in addition to 86,392 inpatients. Annually, there are around 14,000 medical operations, in excess of 4,600 births, more than 55,000 presentations to emergency department of which nearly one-third are admitted to hospital.

Westmead Hospital is located on the junction of Darcy and Hawkesbury Roads in Westmead and provides a full range of tertiary medical and dental services except for paediatrics which is serviced by the adjacent Children's Hospital at Westmead, relocated from Camperdown to Westmead in 1995. The Hospital includes a large Dental Clinical School and extensive clinical pathology and medical research facilities. Located nearby are the Cumberland Hospital (providing outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care), NETS (the statewide neonatal and paediatric emergency transport service) and Westmead Private Hospital, a division of Ramsay Health Care.

The history of health service in western Sydney began with a tent hospital established in Parramatta to meet the medical needs of convicts, military personnel, and early settlers in 1789. The hospital at Parramatta saw many changes over the years, firstly in 1818, it was known as the Colonial Hospital and later, in 1897, the hospital was expanded and became known as the Parramatta District Hospital.