Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is the third largest hospital in the world after the West China Hospital of West China Medical Center of Sichuan University, and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, occupying 70ha, with 3,400 beds and 6,760 staff members. The hospital is in the Soweto area south of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is one of the 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals, and is financed and managed by the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health. It is a teaching hospital for the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, along with the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.HistoryThe Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath, was built in what today is Diepkloof in 1942 for convalescing British and Commonwealth soldiers. Field Marshal Jan Smuts noted during the opening ceremonies that the facility would be used for the area's black population after the war. In 1947 King George VI visited and presented medals to the troops there. From this start grew Baragwanath Hospital (as it became known after 1948), reputedly the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere. In 1997 another name change followed, with the sprawling facility now known as Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in honour of the South African Communist Party leader who was assassinated in 1993.