Royal Children's Hospital

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Royal Children's Hospital
Royal Children's Hospital from the corner of Flemington Road and Gatehouse Street
Location
Place	Melbourne Victoria, (AU)
Organisation
Care System	Public Medicare (AU)
Hospital Type	Specialist
Affiliated University	University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, and Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Services
Emergency Dept.	Unknown
Beds	250
Speciality	Children's Hospital
History
Founded	1870, 1963 present site
Links
Website	Homepage
See also	Hospitals in Australia

The Royal Children's Hospital is a children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

It is the major specialist paediatric hospital for Victoria and offers a full range of clinical services, tertiary care and health promotion and prevention programs for children and adolescents. It is a major teaching hospital with links to the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute based onsite.

The hospital was established in 1870 and moved to its present site in Parkville on the corner of Flemington Road and Gatehouse Street in 1963. It overlooks the trees and lawns of Royal Park.

RCH also has two acute psychiatric inpatient facilities, called the Banksia Unit, for children up to the age of 18 years. The two locations are Dandenong and Mavis Street Footscray, Victoria.

The Good Friday Appeal is held annually to raise money for the hospital. It has been broadcast on the Seven TV network for 51 years. The goal of the Appeal is to ensure that children with life threatening illnesses can have the best care.

The 2008 appeal raised $12,482,380.

In 2005, the Victorian State Government announced plans to build a brand new 340-bed home for RCH adjacent to the current site. [1]

The winning bid of the redevelopment is lead by Babcock and Brown with architects Bates Smart and consulting engineers Norman Disney & Young. Work commenced on the site in late 2007, and is due to be completed in 2011.