Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 82
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
Chapter 7: Health and Welfare
7.1
Background to the records
Medical staff in the
Colony
The First Fleet arrived with a complete medical staff and of these a
Principal Surgeon, three assistant surgeons and one junior surgeon were
appointed as the medical staff of the colony. All held their commissions
direct from the Crown. (Watson, Sydney Hospital, p.2).
First hospital in
Sydney
The first hospital of tents was erected in February 1788 on the west side
of Sydney Cove. Work on a building for the reception of the sick was
'put in hand' in March 1788. (Collins, An Account of the English Colony,
p.15).
Portable hospital
In 1790 the Second Fleet brought about 490 people needing
hospitalisation. A portable military hospital, shipped out on the Justinian
in June 1790, assembled on wooden blocks was completed and filled
immediately on 7 July 1790. (Flynn, The Second Fleet, p.50). While it
was being assembled upwards of thirty tents were pitched in front of the
hospital to accommodate the sick. (Collins, An Account of the English
Colony, p.99). In 1797 Governor Hunter ordered that it be pulled down
and re-erected on a stone foundation. (HRA vol. 7, note 70, p.805).
Principal surgeons
William Balmain succeeded John White, Principal Surgeon on the First
Fleet, in 1794 and Thomas Jamison in turn replaced him in 1805. At
Sydney there was one Principal Surgeon and one assistant surgeon;
there was also one surgeon at Norfolk Island and one at Parramatta.
The Principal Surgeon, as the Superintendent of the Hospitals, made
reports to the Governor and accounted to the Commissary for stores
received. (Watson, Sydney Hospital, pp.6, 8).
The Rum Hospital
Under Governor Macquarie tenders were called for the erection of a new
hospital. (HRA vol. 7, note 70, p.805). The contract was given to D'Arcy
Wentworth, Alexander Riley, and Garnham Blaxcell who in return
received a virtual monopoly on the sale of rum. (HRA vol. 8, note 66,
p.667). The Rum Hospital, as it became known, consisted of 3 blocks
and was located on the eastern side of Macquarie Street. (HRA vol. 7,
note 120, p.813). The first patients were received in the middle of 1816
but the hospital was not completed until July 1817. Three wards were
kept for the use of patients, two on the ground floor for males and one
above for females. Another four wards were allocated to the newly
established Supreme Court, and the remaining ward was the hospital
dispensary and store room. (Watson, Sydney Hospital, p.39).
Admission to the
Rum Hospital
The Hospital treated all convicts who were working for the Government;
nurses were drawn from the convicts. Assigned servants were admitted
on condition that their masters maintained them for 14 days. Those not
well enough to resume work after that period had to be returned to
government if their masters were unwilling to maintain them. Free
settlers were admitted, if they lacked the means of paying. Employers
were responsible for the fees of merchant seamen but civil officers were
treated gratuitously. (Watson, Sydney Hospital, p.38).
Administration of
the Rum Hospital
D'Arcy Wentworth took over from Jamison in 1809 and became the
Principal Surgeon in 1811. During his administration the hospital was
frequently overcrowded. Each ward was designed to hold 20 patients
but the average number under treatment at any one time was thought
to be around 70-80. (Watson, Sydney Hospital, p.39). Wentworth
resigned in 1819, and James Bowman was appointed Principal Surgeon.
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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