St Margaret’s Hospital becomes a teaching hospital in obstetrics in 1964
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
St Margaret's Hospital was founded by Gertrude Abbott in 1894 to care for unmarried mothers, and staffed by the Sisters of St Joseph since 1937. In 1964 St Margaret's became a teaching hospital in Obstetrics for University of Sydney students. A plaque in the entrance foyer of the hospital on Bourke Street Surry Hills commemorated this association, and was unveiled at the time by Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn in the presence of a distinguished medical and academic audience. During its life as a teaching hospital St Margaret's trained close to forty students each year, as well as providing training for one specialist position each year, eight positions each year for general practitioner training in Obstetrics, and training for sixty midwives each year. The hospital also maintained a library for medical students and a comprehensive collection of bottle specimens. In 1971 the University of Sydney extended the third and fourth floors of the clinical school, providing lecture theatre facilities, a library, a dining room, and rooms for eight medical students.[1] St Margaret's was redeveloped in 2003, and the original maternity hospital is now known as the 'Alba' building, housing 53 architecturally designed inner-city apartments.
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