The public Queensland Children's Hospital (QCH), on Stanley Street in South Brisbane,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

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, is the primary facility of Children's Health Queensland. QCH has an emergency department and intensive care unit, offering specialist general medical and surgical services. The QCH is classified as a level-six service under the ''Clinical Services Capability Framework'' 2014, offering general health services to children and young people in the greater

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

metropolitan area and tertiary-level care.

History

QCH was opened as the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital on 29 November 2014. A single specialist

paediatric Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Prev ...

hospital for

was recommended by a task force commissioned in 2006 to examine Queensland's paediatric cardiac services. The

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

assembled the task force in light of the ''Mellis Review'', which had found the then-current model of paediatric care to be fragmented and unsustainable. It recommended that all services should be consolidated into a single children’s hospital. QCH combined the former

Royal Children's Hospital The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), colloquially referred to as the Royal Children's, is a major children's hospital in Parkville, Victoria, Parkville, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Regarded as one of the great C ...

, the former Mater Children's Hospital, and the paediatric cardiac services formerly offered by The Prince Charles Hospital into one new facility. The estimated construction cost of QCH was A$1.2 billion. The 12-level facility is one of Queensland's primary

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

for children.

Hospital name

During the early stages of the project, the hospital was known as the Queensland Children's Hospital. On 15 December 2013, the then Queensland Premier

Campbell Newman Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman (born 12 August 1963) is an Australian former politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015. He served as the member for Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Que ...

announced that the hospital would be named after Queensland clinician Lady Phyllis Cilento. On 21 September 2018, Health Minister Steven Miles announced that the hospital would revert to the name of Queensland Children's Hospital after staff petitioned the Queensland government to change the name. Staff cited concerns over views on race and homosexuality expressed by Cilento. The government announced support due to concerns of community confusion over whether the hospital is public or private. The hospital's foundation stated a conventional name would secure more funding for medical research from international donors. An online poll conducted by the government indicated support for the name change. Later reports suggested that many votes originated from government IP addresses, prompting allegations of potential manipulation of the poll, and Miles was referred to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC). On 13 December 2018, workers began the removal of the words "Lady Cilento" from the sign on the building.

Education and research

The QCH collaborates with universities, including

The University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone universities, an i ...

and the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

, on research programs. It is co-located with the Centre for Children's Health Research, which officially opened on 27 November 2015. The nine-level centre houses: * wet and dry laboratories; *

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

services; * a

gait Gait is the pattern of Motion (physics), movement of the limb (anatomy), limbs of animals, including Gait (human), humans, during Animal locomotion, locomotion over a solid substrate. Most animals use a variety of gaits, selecting gait based on s ...

laboratory; * a

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

laboratory; and * the Queensland Children's Tumor Bank (funded by the Children's Hospital Foundation), which provides a tissue repository for national and international cancer research.

Design

The QCH was designed by the firm Conrad Garget Lyons. Based on the concept of a living tree, the building was designed as a network of trunks and branches running throughout the complex, with outdoor gardens and terraces that fill the hospital with as much natural light as possible. The building design has received a number of awards, including: * the 2015 Queensland State Architecture Award; * the F.D.G Stanley Award for Public Architecture; and * the Karl Langer Award for Urban Design from the

Australian Institute of Architects The Australian Institute of Architects, officially the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (abbreviated as RAIA), is Australia's professional body for architects. Its members use the post-nominals FRAIA (Fellow), ARAIA (Associate Member) an ...

. At the 2015 Design and Health International Academy Awards, the Hospital design was awarded as the overall winner for Autogenic Design Project for Healthcare Environment.

Schooling

The hospital provides educational programs to students from prep to year 12 for inpatients, outpatients, and family members of hospitalised patients in several settings and locations across the hospital community.

References

External links

* * {{Official website, https://childrens.health.qld.gov.au/, name=Official website (Children's Health Queensland) Children's hospitals in Australia Hospitals in Brisbane Hospitals established in 2014 2014 establishments in Australia Postmodern architecture in Australia South Brisbane, Queensland