Waikato Hospital


Waikato Hospital is a major regional hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand. It provides specialised and emergency healthcare for the Midlands and Waikato area with patients referred there from feeder hospitals like Whakatane, Lakes area, Tauranga, Thames, Tokoroa and Rotorua.

Facilities

Waikato District Health Board employs more than 6000 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 372,865 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
Specialist services include:
The centre is the main trauma facility for the area, and close connection to road and air transport allow patient-hospital transport in less than an hour from any place in the region.
Waikato Hospital is home to one of New Zealand's four burns units. The unit primarily serves patients from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Taranaki regions.

Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre

The Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre is the inpatient mental health unit for the Waikato DHB, located on the Waikato Hospital site. The centre consists of seven secure wards, including two forensic psychiatric wards providing mental health services to the Department of Corrections.
In October 2019, the New Zealand Government announced NZ$100 million in funding for replacement of the facility, dependent on a final business case due in 2021.

Other services

The hospital has an academic division of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Auckland, acting as a teaching and training centre for undergraduates and postgraduate medical and allied health science students. There is a dedicated training facility, the Bryant Education Centre. Research is also undertaken in cooperation with the Ruakura Agricultural Research Centre and the University of Waikato.
The hospital also has five chaplains who help perform social services and provide counselling, assisted by volunteers. The services are part-funded by the Ministry of Health, churches and donations. The hospital also operates 'Hilda Ross House', a hospital hotel owned by the District Health Board.

History

The foundation stone of the first ward of the hospital to be built in brick was laid on July 1st 1905 by Andrew Primrose, Esq., J.P. The decision to expand the hospital had been made the previous year by the Waikato District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board since the demand for admission had more than three times outgrown the accommodation. During the ceremony to lay the foundation stone Mr. Primrose was presented with a silver trowel which was engraved with the following inscription:
Diggers Bar and Café in Hamilton West was once the office of the Waikato District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board.
Plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe trained as a house surgeon at Waikato hospital prior to working in the US and UK with his cousin Harold Gillies. Mary Anne Reidy was also a key figure in the preservation of the hospital.