Mater Health Services North Queensland

Mater Health Services North Queensland operates two private hospitals, one established by the Sisters of Mercy in 1945 named Mater Hospital Pimlico (Formally the Mater Misericordiae Hospital Townsville) and the second purchased in 2007 named the Mater Women's and Children's Hospital Hyde Park (formerly the Wesley/Park Haven Hospital Hyde Park).
History.
Five Sisters of Mercy, members of the Brisbane Congregation, arrived in Townsville in 1878. They began their ministry from a 'cottage on the shores of Cleveland Bay'.
In 1882, Rockhampton was declared a Diocese and the Townsville group was governed from there until 1901, when the group became self-governing with the formation of a Townsville Congregation. Thirteen Sisters were foundation members made up of Sisters from the Brisbane and Rockhampton Congregations who chose to stay in the North.
Over the years the number of Sisters grew and their ministries diversified. Care of sick people was a well-established tradition among Sisters of Mercy, and in keeping with that, the decision was made in 1945 to establish a Catholic hospital in Townsville.
A small private hospital in Stagpole Street, known as 'The Lister', was purchased and the Townsville Sisters of Mercy moved formally into Health Care ministry. The hospital was renamed the 'Mater Misericordiae' (Mother of Mercy), the title given to all hospitals operated by the Sisters of Mercy.
When this hospital was found to be inadequate to meet the demands of modern health care, a property was purchased in Fulham Road and a new 50-bed hospital was opened in 1962. The transfer to the new hospital was made possible by the support given to the Sisters of Mercy by local fund raisers.
Hospitals.
Mater Hospital Pimlico is an acute Medical/Surgical facility with a bed capacity of 158. Specialties represented include Cardiac Surgery, Cardiac Catheter Laboratories, Coronary Care Unit, Intensive Care Unit, Endoscopy, Interventional Radiology, Orthopaedics, Neurosurgery, Respiratory Laboratory, Urodynamics, and Sleep Studies Unit. The Mater Outreach Services is composed of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Unit (PTSD) and the Cardiac Rehabilitation Services.
Mater Women's and Children's Hospital in Hyde Park was established in 2007 and is a Medical/Surgical facility with a present bed capacity of 70. Current specialty areas include Women's, Children's, Obstetrics, General Surgery, Urology, Day Oncology, Urodynamics and Plastics.
Accreditation.
Mater Health Services North Queensland utilises the programme developed by The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards' (ACHS), and Evaluation and Quality Improvement Programme (EQuIP) as a framework to implement and evaluate quality improvement systems through accreditation surveys.