St Helens Hospitals, New Zealand

This was followed by the establishment of seven state-owned maternity hospitals named after St Helens in Lancashire, England the birthplace of the Prime Minister Richard Seddon.

There were St Helens Hospitals in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Gisborne, Invercargill, Wanganui and Wellington.

Hester Maclean took over as Assistant Inspector from Neill in 1906 and continued to establish more hospitals in Christchurch, Gisborne, Wanganui and Invercargill.

[7] However some St Helens continued to be run by midwives and the Department of Health until the 1960s when control moved to the Hospital Boards.

[8][5] Grace Neill, who was Assistant Inspector of Hospital and committed to improving maternity services and health care for mothers and babies, set up the first St Helens in 1905.

Neill found premises in Rintoul St, Newtown, equipped the building and hired a matron and sub-matron in the space of three weeks; the hospital opened on 29 May 1905.

[12] Twelve years later it was decided that St Helens would close and its services were moved to Wellington Women's Hospital.

[13][14] The St Helens building remained empty for eleven years and was finally sold to private developers for conversion to apartments.

[3] The first St Helens Hospital in Auckland was opened on 14 January 1906 in Pitt Street in a house formerly owned by the family of Dr Arthur Guyon Purchas.

By 1938 it had 32 beds making it the largest maternity hospital in the country but still not big enough to meet the demands of the population.

[1] A small hotel on the corner of Durham and Battersea streets in Sydenham, Christchurch was purchased for the hospital which opened in May 1907.

The hospital, which was partially furnished by money from the people of Invercargill, was opened later that year and carried out some district work.

Dr Douglas Wilson was in charge of St Helens and Jessie Hope Gibbons Hospital from 1921 to 1948.

Debate about the use of the hospitals for training of students and the effect on patient care continued into the 1930s with a 'Hands Off St Helens' campaign begun in 1930.