Geelong Hospital
Encyclopedia
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...
n public hospital
Public hospital
A public hospital or government hospital is a hospital which is owned by a government and receives government funding. This type of hospital provides medical care free of charge, the cost of which is covered by the funding the hospital receives....
located in Ryrie Street, Geelong, Victoria
Geelong, Victoria
Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, south-west of the state capital; Melbourne. It is the second most populated city in Victoria and the fifth most populated non-capital city in Australia...
. The hospital is part of Barwon Health
Barwon Health
Barwon Health is a health care provider in Australia, with services ranging from hospital, rehabilitation, elderly care, community health centers and mental health services. Founded in 1998, Barwon Health is among the largest comprehensive regional health services in Australia and also one of the...
, Victoria's largest regional health care provider, which has 21 sites. It is the largest hospital in regional Victoria and the only tertiary hospital outside of the Melbourne Metropolitan area. The site is bounded by Ryrie, Bellarine, Myers, and Swanston Streets.
History
City of Geelong
The City of Geelong was a Local Government Area located about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1849 until 1994.-History:...
who objected to the loss of parkland.
By 1917 a public meeting was held calling for a new hospital, to be dedicated to the memory of Lord Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
. A building fund was set up, and work started in October 1922. The Geelong and District Kitchener Memorial Hospital as it was known opened on March 13, 1924. The original building consisted of a central administration block which remained until 2007, with wards branching off to each side. From 1927 the Gala Day
Gala Day
Gala Day is a one day festival held in many towns over the world, especially Scotland. One of the biggest is held in the city of Geelong, Victoria, Australia...
festival in Geelong helped raise money for the hospital.
Further additions to the buildings included the boiler house on Swanston Street, the Kardina Ward along Bellarine Street in the 1920s, and the Baxter House maternity hospital in 1954 (now the Geelong Private Hospital).
The 1960s saw the Birdsey Wing built behind the existing buildings, with the 1980s seeing the demolition of the old western wards and their replacement with the Heath Wing containing the new emergency department and main entrance. The Dax House psychiatric ward was also built at this time. The Andrew Love cancer centre was built in the early 1990s on the site of the older eastern wards.
Today
The Baxter House maternity hospitalChildbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
was closed in the late 1990s, being relocated into a redeveloped Dax House and renamed the Bellarine Centre. The psychiatric wards were moved into the former Swanston Street {Primary School which had closed some years earlier. The Geelong Private Hospital took over the empty Baxter House.
The Andrew Love cancer centre was redeveloped during 2006, and a new main entrance was provided to the hospital from Bellarine Street. A new administration office and emergency ward has been constructed on the Ryrie Street side of the hospital.
Services
As the only tertiary referral centre in regional Victoria, it provides provides service covering nearly all specialites, with the exception of organ transplant and neurosurgery. It has a primary catchment area of over 350,000 people, which a catchment area of over 500,000 for some specialities. It has a speciality catchment area from Werribee to the South Australia border.Speciality Units
Medical Units (Inpatient)- General Medical
- Respiratory/ Thoracic
- Infectious Disease
- Neurology/ Stroke unit
- Endocinology/ Diabetes
- Anaesthetology/ Pain Management
- Palliative care
- Cardiology (including a coranary care unit, and cardiac cath labs)
- Intensive Care
- Emergency Department
- Gastroenterology
- Nephrology (Renal)
- Oncology (medical oncology, radiation oncology, and clinical haematology)
- Maternity Services
- Paediatric
- Gynaecology
- Radiology/ Nuclear medicine (including interventional radiology)
- Rheumatology
- Dermatology
Surgical Units
- General (including Upper Gastrointestinal, and colorectal)
- Urology
- Vascular
- Plastics/ Reconstrutive
- Maxillofacial & Oral
- Otolaryngology (Ear,Nose, Throat, Head and Neck)
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopaedic
- Cardiothoracic
- Neurosurgery (Outpatients Only)
Acute Psychiatric Unit
Facts
- Has 406 acute hospital beds. Barwon Health has a total 1016 beds.
- Treated over 66,000 inpatients in 2008-2009.
- Emergency Department sees over 47,000 patients a year
- Chairs in MedicineMedicineMedicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, SurgerySurgerySurgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and PsychiatryPsychiatryPsychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
with the University of MelbourneUniversity of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. - Chair in NursingNursingNursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....
with Deakin UniversityDeakin UniversityDeakin University is an Australian public university with nearly 40,000 higher education students in 2010. It receives more than A$600 million in operating revenue annually, and controls more than A$1.3 billion in assets. It received more than A$35 million in research income in 2009 and had 835... - Associated with the Gordon Institute of TAFEGordon Institute of TAFEThe Gordon Institute of TAFE is the TAFE institute servicing Geelong since 1888. It has 26,000 students studying on-campus, off-campus and in business or industry ....
Division 2 nursing students.