Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a 340 bed acute tertiary referral hospital in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.HistoryThe hospital opened in 1954. 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 the QEH name and granting Arms to the Hospital, decorates the principal foyer.Originally designed to service the western area but is now the second most utilised hospital in South Australia by patients from the central northern region of Adelaide.The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was the first unit in Australia to perform kidney transplantation successfully. 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 the QEH. In 2005 Premier Rann and Health Minister Lea Stevens unveiled plans for the QEH's $120 million second stage redevelopment. It included construction of a new three-level inpatient building for maternity, surgical, oncology and renal dialysis patients, 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.