South Africa has the biggest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto South Africa is the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere as well as Africa, with a capacity of 3,400 beds.

The history of the hospital dates to the Second World War, when the British Government asked South Africa to build two hospitals of 1,200 beds each for Imperial troops for its Middle East Command.

While the British asked for one to be built in the Cape and another in what was then Natal, the South African government decided on Johannesburg, as there was already a medical faculty, nurses’ training college, and rehabilitation facilities.

The government purchased the Diepkloof farm, which was south-west of the centre of Johannesburg, and purchased the piece of land from the Corner House Mining Group.

Despite the British initially asking for the hospital to have a capacity of 1,200 beds, it was decided to make provision for 1,544 beds instead, bringing the cost of construction up from £324,000 to £328,000.

The layout of the facility resembled a military camp, with 50 wards, each in its own hut, containing roughly 40 beds each.

Construction began on 3 November 1941 and the first patients were admitted on 28 May 1942. It was decided that the facility would be called the Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath.

The name Baragwanath was the surname of a Cornish immigrant, John Albert Baragwanath, who set up a refreshment station between 1900 and 1910, in what is now Soweto, earning the area its name.

This is despite the refreshment station being called The Wayside Inn.

Johannesburg residents are reported to have supported the hospital throughout the war, providing gifts and entertainment as well has helping to provide sporting facilities, such as bowling greens and tennis courts.

Because of Johannesburg’s dry winters and warm climate, the facility became ideal for treating tuberculosis patients.

As a result, the hospital was mostly used to treat TB patients during the latter half of the war.

After the National Party came in power in 1948 and purchased the hospital for £1 million, it transferred the nearby black hospital to the facility, which opened with 480 beds.

The Wits medical school, which had began accepting black medical students in 1941, soon forged with the hospital.

While the hospital was underfunded and overcrowded, it gave students the opportunity to gain access to sophisticated technologies and become exposed to advanced pathologies.

The facility continued to serve as a civilian hospital and was renamed in 1997 to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 1997.

This followed the assassination of struggle stalwart Chris Hani, who the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, on 10 April 1993.

The hospital today

Doctors and nurses who have graduated from the hospital have significantly benefitted from their experiences at the institution.

According to Personal Professor of Paediatrics and Child health, Haroon Saloojee, the academic affiliation means “you have a calibre of clinicians and other people who represent excellence.”

The facility has significantly expanded in size, covering 70 hectares, or 130 football fields, and employs 6,760 staff members.

At 3,400 beds, it is the sixth-largest hospital in the world, with the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzou University in China holding the top spot at 7,000 beds.

It still has a similar layout to the Baragwanath Imperial Hospital. However, much larger with 429 buildings covering a surface area of 233,795 square meters.

The facility is one of 40 provincial hospitals in Gauteng and financed and run by the Gauteng Provincial Health Department.

According to the hospital, it registers about 150,000 inpatient cases and 500,000 outpatient cases. Roughly 70% of all admissions are emergencies with about 160 gunshot wounds per month.

The facility’s Department of Ophthalmology, a branch of medicine specialising in eye treatment, receives about 50,000 patients per year, while the Maternity Hospital treats approximately 60,000.

During the Covid-19 pandemic it was used as one of Wits University’s Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research unit, which lead two of the country’s three Covid-19 vaccine trials.

More images of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital