The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) is a major

children's hospital A children's hospital is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In certain special cases, they may also treat adults. The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. As a major specialist

paediatric Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

hospital in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, the Royal Children's Hospital provides a full range of clinical services, tertiary care, as well as health promotion and prevention programs for children and young people. The hospital is the designated statewide major trauma centre for paediatrics in Victoria and a Nationally Funded Centre for cardiac and liver transplantation. Its campus partners are the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and The University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, which are based onsite at the hospital. The hospital is surrounded by the parkland of Royal Park, with views of trees and much natural light.

History

The hospital was established in 1870 and moved to the corner of

Flemington Road Flemington Road is a major thoroughfare in the inner suburbs of North Melbourne and Parkville in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs for 2 km in a northwest–southeast direction, from the southern end of Mount Alexander Road, Flemington, ...

and Gatehouse Street in Parkville in 1963. The Royal Children's Hospital was founded by Doctors John Singleton and William Smith, in response to their serious concerns about infant mortality in the fledgling city of Melbourne. The original "Free Hospital for Sick Children" was set up in a small house at 39 Stephen Street (now 49 Exhibition Street) and treated more than 1,000 children in its first year of operation. In 2005, the

Victoria State Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

announced plans to build a brand new 340 bed home for RCH adjacent to the existing site. The winning bid of the redevelopment was led by

Babcock & Brown Babcock & Brown LP was a global investment and advisory firm, established in 1977, based in Sydney, Australia, that went into liquidation in 2009. Babcock & Brown Securities LLC was an active investment banking firm focused on equipment and proj ...

with architects Billard Leece Partnership and

Bates Smart Bates Smart is an architectural firm with studios in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1853 by Joseph Reed, it is known as one of Australia's oldest architectural firms. Over the decades, the firm's multidisciplinary practices involv ...

Architects. HKS Inc. Architects of Dallas, Texas provided Pediatric Design and Planning Services and consulting engineers Norman Disney & Young. Work commenced on the site in late 2007, and was completed in late 2011, opened by

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during h ...

on her Royal Tour. Patients were moved into the new hospital in November 2011. After the move to new facility, demolition of the old site was completed by December 2012. Much of the old site was turned back into parkland, creating a new gateway to Royal Park. Landscaping of the park was complete by 2015.

Good Friday Appeal

The

Good Friday Appeal The Good Friday Appeal is an annual fundraising activity on behalf of the Royal Children's Hospital, in Melbourne, Australia. The event occurs on Good Friday every year. In 2022, the appeal raised over $22 million, setting a new record. More ...

is held annually to raise money for the hospital. It has been broadcast on the

Seven TV Semyorka, or 7TV (russian: Семёрка) was a Russian federal television channel, broadcast under the ''UTH Russia'' television network from Moscow, Russia. The channel was officially founded in 1997 and on 17 September 2001 it was registered ...

network for 52 years. The goal of the Appeal is to ensure that children with life-threatening illnesses receive the best possible medical and clinical care. The 2009 Appeal raised $13,862,734. The 2010 Appeal raised $14,462,000. The 2011 Appeal raised $15,156,000. The 2012 Appeal raised $15,820,640. The 2013 appeal raised $16,405,534.65. The 2016 Appeal, raised $17,445,624. The 2017 Appeal, raised $17,605,662. A new record was set in 2018, with the appeal raising $18,043,251.

Centre for Adolescent Health, Gender Service

The RCH Centre for Adolescent Health, Gender Service provides a multidisciplinary approach to the assessment, care and treatment of

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

for children aged 3 to 17 years. In 2003 it received 1 referral, increasing to 7 referrals in 2007. In 2015 it was expected that there would be more than 150 referrals, with a one-year waiting list. The Andrews government said it will spend an extra $6 million over four years to reduce waiting times. During 2016 the gender clinic is expecting to receive at least 250 referrals.

Arms

References

External links