United Bulawayo Hospitals
The city's main public hospital complex at Kumalo, made up of the main hospital, Richard Morris Hospital and Lady Rodwell Maternity Hospital, where a great many Bulawayo people were born.
If you were born in Bulawayo, there is a good chance it was here. Lady Rodwell Maternity Hospital, now part of United Bulawayo Hospitals, is a name more Bulawayo families know than almost any other building in the city — because it is where so many of them, or their parents, were born. There is more about the woman it is named for.
The hospitals
United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) is the city’s large public hospital complex, at Kumalo, on the eastern side of the city. Its own history says it opened in 1937 as an extension of the old Memorial Hospital. At first it served white patients, starting with maternity, and a general wing followed in 1943. At independence it had about 300 beds. Today it has about 650 and is one of the country’s central hospitals.
UBH is made up of three parts:
- The main hospital: casualty, theatres, intensive care and the general wards.
- Richard Morris Hospital: gynaecology, a surgical ward, the eye clinic and a children’s ward.
- Lady Rodwell Maternity Hospital: labour ward and post-natal care.
What the photographs show
The photographs in this set were taken around 2005. They show the UBH signs, the Central Hospital building, Richard Morris Hospital, Lady Rodwell Hospital, the Allan Wilson Ward, the Bartley Memorial Block, the ambulance services, the blood transfusion service, and the male and female nurses’ homes and their recreation grounds.
What we don’t know yet
- Who Lady Rodwell and Richard Morris were. Lady Rodwell is very probably the wife of Sir Cecil Rodwell, Governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1928 to 1934, but we have not confirmed it. We do not yet know who Richard Morris was.
- When each part was built, and when the hospital first admitted patients of every race.
- Your story. Were you born at Lady Rodwell? Did you train or work as a nurse at UBH, or live in the nurses’ homes? We would especially like to hear from former nurses and midwives. Their memories are a part of the city’s history no one else holds.
Sources
- United Bulawayo Hospitals, “About us”, ubh.org.zw: 1937 origin, 1943 general wing, bed numbers, component hospitals.
25 photographs of United Bulawayo Hospitals →
Do you know more about this? Corrections, photographs and your own account are all welcome, and a correction is published on the page with the date it was made. Send something in.