The John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children's Hospital (sometimes known as the JHH and JHCH respectively, or more colloquially The John Hunter) is the principal referral centre and a tertiary hospital for

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, and northern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The 820 bed hospital is the main teaching hospital of the University of Newcastle. The hospital contains the only trauma centre in New South Wales outside the Sydney Metropolitan Area, and has the busiest emergency department in the state. John Hunter is the busiest trauma hospital in the state, and the second-busiest in the country behind

The Alfred Hospital The Alfred Hospital, also known as The Alfred or Alfred Hospital, is a leading tertiary teaching hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. It is the second oldest hospital in Victoria, and the oldest Melbourne hospital still operating on its original site ...

in Victoria .

Overview

The John Hunter health complex consists of 820 beds in total, and is co-located next to the 174 bed Newcastle Private Hospital, as well as the regional Hunter Area Pathology Service which provides tertiary level pathology testing. The complex consists of a single building, which is divided into 694 adult beds and another 126 paediatric beds in the John Hunter Children's Hospital. The Royal Newcastle Centre (formerly

Royal Newcastle Hospital The Royal Newcastle Hospital was, for nearly 190 years, the main hospital in the Australian city of Newcastle. The hospital stood on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the Hunter River port of Newcastle, New South Wales, from 1817 until 200 ...

), opened as an extension wing to the John Hunter Hospital in April 2006, providing 144 of these beds. Patients from the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

and beyond are referred to John Hunter for treatment in a range of specialities. The John Hunter Children's Hospital and Royal Newcastle Centre are located within the same building as the John Hunter Hospital. Also on the same grounds are Rankin Park Hospital (Rehab), Newcastle Private Hospital and the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). John Hunter Hospital is named for the second

Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...

, Scottish-born Royal Naval Officer John Hunter, who served in office from 1795-1800.

Specialty Services Provided

The JHH and JHCH are tertiary level hospitals, and provide the following specialties and subspecialties:

Wards

The John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children's Hospital consists of the following ~30 bed wards. Wards are designated by their horizontal position along the hospitals long corridor (by letter) and the number indicates which level of the hospital the ward is on (Levels 1–3). Hence ward E3 is positioned above E2 and next door to ward F3. * Ward E1: Rehabilitation * Ward E2: Urology/Rheumatology * Ward E3: Orthopaedics * Ward F1: Orthopaedics * Ward F2: Immunology/Respiratory/General Medicine * Ward F3: Cardiovascular * Ward G1: General Medicine * Ward G2: Neurology/Neurosurgery * Ward G3: Cardiology/Gastroenterology * Ward H1: Children's Medical * Ward H2: Emergency Short Stay Unit/Medical Assessment and Coordination Unit * Ward H3: Special Surgery/Trauma * Ward J1: Children's Surgical and Oncology * Ward J2: Adolescent, Day Stay and Sleep Unit * Ward J3: General Surgery * Ward K1: Nephrology/Dialysis * Ward K2: Maternity/Post-Natal * Ward K3: Gynaecology/Gynaecology Oncology * AGSU: Acute General Surgical Unit * CCU: Coronary Care Unit * ED: Emergency Department * Transplant: Transplant * ICU/HD: Intensive Care Unit/High Dependency Unit * PICU: Paediatric Intensive Care Unit * NICU: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit * NEXUS: Adolescent Mental Healthh

Origin of name

A unique aspect of the John Hunter Hospital is the reasoning behind its name. Rather than being named after one person, the JHH is named in honour of three men, all of whom were called John Hunter. They were: * John Hunter, a former governor of

and the namesake of the whole Hunter region * John Hunter, the famed 18th-century surgeon and pioneer of anatomical pathology, and *

John Irvine Hunter John Irvine Hunter (24 January 1898 – 10 December 1924)Michael J. Blunt,, '' Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Vol. 9, MUP, 1983, pp 408–9. Retrieved 13 August 2009 was an Australian professor of anatomy. Early life and education Hu ...

, an Australian anatomist who died in 1924 at the age of 26, having already been appointed the youngest anatomy professor at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

Solar Array

In late 2021, a solar installation said to be the largest on any hospital in the world, was switched on at the John Hunter Hospital. It contains more than 5000 solar panels, covers 12000 square metres, and generates 3.24 gigawatt-hours per year. That is enough to power the time machine in back to the future to complete 2.5 trips back in time. Which is a fitting note due to the fact that a time machine is required to use the technology at John Hunter Hospital.

References

External links

John Hunter Children's Hospital websiteHunter New England Local Health Network
{{Authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1991 Hospitals in New South Wales Buildings and structures in Newcastle, New South Wales Teaching hospitals in Australia Hospitals established in 1991 1991 establishments in Australia