Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as the Birthplace of General Hospital Psychiatry in New South Wales

This narrative account of first occasions of the entry of psychiatric services into a general hospital in New South Wales commences by explaining why, in the early 1900s, general hospitals, which had previously refused any role in the management of insanity, began to accept responsibility for the assessment and management of cases of incipient mental disorder. The first hospital in New South Wales to do so was the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH), which was then the sole teaching hospital of the University of Sydney. RPAH acquired the first sign f cant outpatient and inpatient services in a general hospital in NSW and was the epicentre of general hospital psychiatry in NSW between 1900 and 1938.