Lidcombe Hospital (previously The Rookwood Asylum) becomes a teaching hospital in 1964
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
Lidcombe Hospital was originally established in 1893 as the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm. During the mid 1960s, decisions were taken to create a comprehensive geriatric service within the hospital and to upgrade medical, surgical and diagnostic services through the appointment of salaried specialists. Lidcombe Hospital has provided clinical instruction for University of Sydney students since 1964 when for two years extra tutorials in Clinical Surgery were provided to groups of students attached to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's clinical school. With the resignation of the hospital's Staff Surgeon J. E. Moulton this association lapsed for several years, but with its reestablishment, tutorials in ophthalmology and neurology were provided, and deferred examinations in clinical surgery and clinical medicine were conducted using the hospital's facilities. These early arrangements were fairly informal and in 1970 Medical Superintendent G. R. Andrews began discussions with Professor F. R. Magarey, Professor C. R. B. Blackburn and Professor J. Loewenthal in an attempt to implement more formal clinical teaching arrangements at Lidcombe, and also to begin teaching geriatrics as part of the undergraduate curriculum. Several months later these objectives were achieved, with lectures in geriatrics presented to fifth year students, and Lidcombe Hospital recognised by the Senate as a Special Affiliated Teaching Hospital.[1]
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