The Lincoln Centre 

The Lincoln Centre for Research into Bone and Joint Diseases was established in 1998, following the sale of the business conducted within the hospital named “The Centre for Bone and Joint Diseases”, situated at Badajoz Road, North Ryde, to Ramsay Health Care. The funds received from the sale of this business were used to establish a research foundation. The business conducted at the hospital, namely the management of patients with rheumatological, orthopaedic and hand surgery conditions, was transferred to the new North Shore Private Hospital.

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Previously, the Board had conducted the management of a public and private hospital following the establishment of the St Ives Church of England Hospital in Ridge Street, North Sydney, in 1941. In 1970, the name of the hospital was changed to North Sydney Community Hospital to avoid confusion with the suburb of St Ives. The land and buildings on which the hospital was housed were established through the purchase of four individual old homes – 93, 95, 95A and 97 Ridge Street – which were a part of original grants to James Zahel and Louis Solomon in 1855.

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In 1939, a group of doctors and leading citizens from the North Shore held a meeting led by Dr Skipton-Stacey to found a first-class private hospital. The Reverend DF Cash became the first Chairman of the committee formed to develop the hospital. From October 1944, the hospital existed as a third schedule hospital under the Public Hospitals Act 1929. In 1961 the NSW Hospital Commission started providing a subsidy and the hospital remained a private, non-profit hospital registered as a charity with tax-deductibility for donations. In 1987, through an agreement with Royal North Shore Hospital and the then Area Health Service, the hospital, remaining a third schedule hospital, undertook a combined management of the hospital with the Area Health Service. The Board retained its own legal identity and ownership of the property.

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As expansion of the site was not possible, in 1990, the Area Health Service offered the chance to relocate to the 120 bed Cameron Block at the Macquarie Hospital campus in North Ryde. Sale of the Ridge Street properties allowed redevelopment and equipping of what became the Centre for Bone and Joint Diseases at North Ryde in 1990, with 70 beds including a 12 bed hand surgery unit.

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In 1997, Ramsay Health Care offered to purchase the business, relocating the orthopaedic and hand surgeons to the new North Shore Private Hospital, adjacent to Royal North Shore Hospital. The funds available allowed the establishment of a medical research foundation, housed within North Shore Private Hospital and renamed after our very long serving Chairman, retired Judge, and sometime Mayor of North Sydney, John Lincoln.

Currently the Board, at the advice of its Research Advisory Committee, allocates over $250,000 per annum for research and has directed over           $4 million of awarded grants since 1998. In 2011, The Lincoln Centre Board decided to support the development of hand surgery research and education, continuing its support of research into bone and joint conditions applicable to hand surgery conditions.