History of Madadeni hospital

Madadeni was originally founded as a mental hospital on the 1st August 1967, even today 37 years later the local community still refer to it as such.

In its founding days the hospital administration was under the leadership of Professor Lamont the then comissioner of mental hygiene and acting medical superintendent.

The hospitals first medical superintendent was the Dr K.B Wright who hailed from Bloemfontein. It was Dr.Wright who enlisted the services of black doctors of which Dr F.T.Mdlalose and the late Dr Z.Mtshali are but two.

The nursing staff was drawn from various hospitals like: Fort Napier, Town Hill and Umngeni Hospital.

The Psychiatric nursing college was founded in 1968 and led by Mr Van Zyl, with the help of two other instructors from Fort Napier. The first black tutor was Mr Andries Khumalo who replaced Mr Van Zyl in 1975. He is turn was replaced by Mrs Edith Gumede from Mc Cord's Hospital.

It is largely to the emergence of the Iscor division in Newcastle that Madadeni was transformed into a provincial hospital. The increase in the madadeni townships population necessitated the opening of Madadeni as a general service hospital.

• The general services division was formed in the February of 1976.
• Dental Services where rendered in O.P.D under Dr. Sengolaan.
• Physiotherapy was opened in 1979 and maintained by army officers for 2 years.
• Mr Radebe headed General Administration aswell as acted as a secretary.
• The I.C.U section was established in 1979 under Dr Bettendorf and Professional Nurse P.Nyembe
• Theatre started operation in February 1976 with Professional Nurse Maud Matthews as sister in charge. Instruments at that stage where being donated by various hospitals.
• Outpatient Department started in 1976 with surgical othopaedic clincis on Tuesdays and Thursday respectively.
• The Maternity section started earlier than the general section. Nurses were transferred from Newcastle Provincial Hospital to Madadeni with the patients. Deliveries were conducted successfully although our facilities at that time were inadequate.

The Restructuring 1978 - 1987

Once the hospital was firmly established under the administration of the then KwaZulu Government, the next 10 years at Madadeni became a period of intense restructuring.
The restructuring process encompassed both the rectifying of old mistakes and the restructuring of our departments. In some cases the restructuring process continued into the 1990's. Below are some examples:

• In November 1987 a new maternity ward was opened by the then Prime Minister of the KwaZulu Government.
• The old maternity ward was converted into an extension of the nurses homes
• O.P.D as seen today was opened in 1993.

In the February of 1976 the radiology department was opened with the service of only one art time radiographer who's hours extended from 08h00 to 12h00. No radiology services were thus available after 12h00, on weekends or on holidays.

After some developments including the purchasing of equipment and the recruitment of staff a new x-ray unit pened in the casualty department with modern equiipment and a darkroom.

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