The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary health care services for South Australia and provides secondary care clinical services to residents of Adelaide's central metropolitan area, which includes the inner suburbs. The original Adelaide Hospital was built in 1840 at the eastern end of North Terrace, Adelaide, with its first building superseded in 1856 and many alterations and additions over the following 175 years. It was prefixed by the "Royal" in 1939. In 2017 it was replaced by the new hospital, built at the western end of North Terrace. The new hospital is the most expensive building ever built in Australia, and the most expensive hospital ever built anywhere in the world, at in construction and equipment costs. The redevelopment on the site of the old RAH is known as Lot Fourteen. History 1841–2017: Original hospital buildings Colonel Light had originally envisaged the hospital in the Eastern parklands. On 15 July 1840 Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, then governor of South Australia, laid the foundation stone for the Adelaide Hospital, which is regarded as the hospital's foundation day, although the first patients were only admitted in January or February of the following year. It was located in the Adelaide Park Lands on the north side of North Terrace, east of Frome Road. In 1856, around the time of the establishment of the Adelaide Botanic Garden to the east, a second building was completed on the site, and the original hospital was used to house patients from the nearby Adelaide Lunatic Asylum, which was sold off to the Botanic Garden. In 1891 the hospital opened its first operating theatre, with rows of raised seating to enable students and others to witness operations. In 1899, only four years after x-ray was discovered, an x-ray facility was opened, by 1939 boasting an extensive X-ray department for the treatment of cancer. The hospital installed its first telephone system in 1901 and performed its first blood transfusion in 1925. The hospital was officially proclaimed "Royal" on 2 November 1939. At that time it was the largest general hospital in Australia, and included a modern dental hospital. It also functioned as a teaching hospital for medical and dental students, in conjunction with the University of Adelaide (a partnership