History
St George’s Hospital is an Incorporated Society and is a registered charitable trust
St George’s Hospital was first suggested in the 1850s when the London-based Canterbury Association encouraged Canterbury’s founding settlers to create a vibrant new city. This included building a cathedral, a boys’ school, a university college, a church hospital and later a medical school.
In the early 1920s a band of enthusiasts, led and inspired by Canon J R Wilford, set about founding a private Church of England Hospital in Christchurch.
St George’s Hospital was built as a result of cooperation between the Anglican Church and a group of interested Cantabrians. The doors were opened in 1928.
In 1989 the Society of St George’s Hospital commenced discussions about rebuilding to significantly modernise and expand the services. The vision was to create a one-stop site, offering a comprehensive range of hospital and medical services for the convenience of patients, medical specialists, surgeons, visitors and allied medical professionals.
Today, St George’s Hospital is one of the largest private hospitals in New Zealand and one of the most modern in terms of equipment and technology.
A summary of our development
- 1991: Purpose-built Day Surgery Unit opened
- 1995: Milford Chambers, the first of our consulting room buildings opened
- 2000: Hiatt Chambers opens, introducing more consulting rooms
- 2002: Canon Wilford Wing commissioned. Features include two surgical wards, four operating theatres, main recovery, underground car park, consulting rooms, café, pharmacy and laboratory
- 2003: Established cardiac service (surgery, ICU and Cath Lab)
- 2008: Car park and Leinster Chambers (consulting room building) commissioned
- 2010: Cancer Care Centre opens. A state-of-the-art, purpose built facility providing advanced treatment protocols with world-class technology – raising the standard of cancer treatment in New Zealand