The Ballarat Base Hospital is a hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 located in Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is a public hospital operated by Ballarat Health Services. Ballarat Health Services employs approximately 3000 staff at the Base Hospital, the nearby Queen Elizabeth Centre, and 13 off-site facilities in the surrounding area.

History

During the gold rush of the 1850s

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

 the Government Camp provided medical support but mainly for officers and not for miners and the general community. Those wounded at the Eureka Stockade

Eureka Stockade

The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...

 in 1854 received varying attention and the need for a hospital became apparent. A year later building of a hospital commenced.

The five storey Henry Bolte wing, designed by architects Bates Smart

Bates Smart

Bates Smart is Australia's second oldest architectural firm, established in 1853 by Joseph Reed as the practice Reed and Barnes. JPE Design Studio in Adelaide founded in 1851 by Daniel Garlick is the oldest continuing architectural practice in Australia....

 was completed in 1994. Styled in postmodern

Postmodern architecture

Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...

 design to blend with the city's heritage buildings it has become a landmark in Ballarat, however many consider the building ugly and bulky.

In 1997, the Ballarat Base Hospital merged with the Queen Elizabeth Centre

Queen Elizabeth Centre, Ballarat

The Queen Elizabeth Centre in Ballarat, Victoria is a part of the Ballarat Health Service.-History:The QEC was formed in 1859 and opened on 20 February 1860 as the "Ballarat Benevolent Asylum"...

 and the Grampians Psychiatric Service to form Ballarat Health Services.

In 2005 Ballarat Health Services was awarded the Premier's Award for the Outstanding Rural and Regional Health Service in Victoria.

In 2004/05 Ballarat Health Services treated a total of 25,606 acute patients (an increase of 1,308 from the previous year) representing 66,215 acute bed days. The hospital delivered 975 babies in the 2004/05 year and 35,835 patients were seen in the Emergency Department.

Specialties

• Cardiology
  Cardiology
  Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...
  
  
• Emergency medicine
  Emergency medicine
  Emergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...
  
  
• Gastroenterology
  Gastroenterology
  Gastroenterology is the branch of medicine whereby the digestive system and its disorders are studied. The name is a combination of three Ancient Greek words gaster , enteron , and logos...
  
  
• Infectious disease medicine
• Lower gastrointestinal surgery
  Lower gastrointestinal surgery
  Digestive system surgery can be divided into upper GI surgery and lower GI surgery.Upper gastrointestinal surgery, often referred to as upper GI surgery, refers to a practise of surgery that focuses on the upper parts of the gastrointestinal tract...
  
  
• Nephrology
  Nephrology
  Nephrology is a branch of internal medicine and pediatrics dealing with the study of the function and diseases of the kidney.-Scope of the specialty:...
  
  
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Upper gastrointestinal surgery
• Vascular surgery
  Vascular surgery
  Vascular surgery is a specialty of surgery in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries and veins, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures, and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolved from general and cardiac surgery...
  
  

Books

• Hyslop, Anthea, Sovereign Remedies: A History of Ballarat Base Hospital, 1850s-1980s, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1989
• Menadue, H. W., First Fifty Years: Ballarat Base Hospital Trained Nurses' League, 1929-1978, Ballarat Base Hospital Trained Nurses' League, Ballarat, 1978
• Menadue, H. W. (ed.), Register of the Nurse Training School 1888-1988, Ballarat Base Hospital, Ballarat Base Hospital Trained Nurses' League, Ballarat, 1993