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History

ACHA Health
The Adelaide Community Healthcare Alliance (ACHA) was formed on 14 November 1999 with the merger of Ashford and Western Community Hospitals. 

This merger set the precedent for further mergers and the integration of the not for profit healthcare sector in SA.  On 31 March 2000, The Memorial Hospital joined the Alliance which then purchased Flinders Private from Ramsay Healthcare on 30 November 2000. 

In the 1990s, significant ongoing changes within Australia’s private healthcare sector stimulated the need for private hospitals to evaluate how to best meet the needs of their patients while ensuring profitability. Hospital costs had been rising faster than CPI increases, leaving community and not-for-profit hospitals testing the outer limits of financial solvency.  

By the merging of resources, we aimed to obtain benefits of size, increase opportunities for staff, provide a better range of services for health insurance fund members and exert more influence on government policy as it relates to the private healthcare sector. 

ACHA Health Logo
In December 2001, the trading name for the Adelaide Community Healthcare Alliance was changed to ACHA Health. This was accompanied by a logo change designed by Woodhead International. 

The logo symbolises wellness, hope and joy. The star has uplifting qualities and respresents excellence. The human element within the form portrays the care of individuals. The shape of the star depicts arms extending, symbolising comfort and warmth – a trusting representation of the organisation. An ‘A’ for ACHA is also evident its form. The logo type is a unique and individual mark for ACHA. It is soft and organic and accounts for infinite health and continuous service that ACHA Health provides. 

Ashford
Ashford Hospital was opened in 1950, a joint collaboration between Unley, Mitcham, West Torrens and Marion Councils and a group of Western District doctors. It was actually the second hospital opened on the same site with Ashford Private Hospital first opening in 1935, which was run by two nursing sisters who sold the hospital to Ashford Community Hospital in 1950. 

In 1995, Ashford was the first private hospital in the State to open an emergency department which now attends to approximately 20,000 patients each year. 

Flinders Private
Opened in 1999, the hospital was Adelaide’s first purpose built private hospital on a teaching hospital campus linking it to a major university medical school and an internationally recognised public teaching hospital.

Flinders Private was originally built and owned by the Ramsay Healthcare Group as a for profit hospital before being sold to ACHA. 

The Memorial
Originally three large homes situated on a two and a half acre property, The Memorial Hospital was established by the SA Methodist Conference as a monument to veterans of World War I.  The Hospital’s first patient was admitted in 1920.