Perth Children's Hospital (PCH) is a specialist
children's hospital
A children's hospital (CH) is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth up to until age 18, and through age 21 and older in the United States. In certain special cases, the ...
in
Nedlands, Western Australia
Nedlands is a western suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. It is a part of the local government areas of the City of Nedlands and the City of Perth. It is about from the Perth CBD via either Thomas Street or Mounts Bay R ...
, located at the corner of
Winthrop Avenue
Winthrop Avenue is a major north–south road in the Perth suburbs of Nedlands and Crawley. For most of its length, the road travels alongside the south-western edge of Kings Park, connecting Thomas Street with Stirling Highway, Mounts Bay R ...
and Monash Avenue on the
Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEII) site. It is Western Australia's 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 and trauma centre, providing medical care to children and adolescents up to 16 years of age.
This hospital provides treatment for the most serious medical cases, as well as secondary services including inpatient, outpatient and day-stay care for children and young people.
History
In 2008, the state government announced that a new children's hospital would be built to replace
Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.
In January 2012, Premier
Colin Barnett
Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is an Australian former politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other ...
and Minister for Health
Kim Hames held a
groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...
ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction.
On 30 September 2013, Premier Colin Barnett announced that the new 298-bed hospital would use the original 1909 name, Perth Children's Hospital. This name was chosen as part of efforts to promote "Perth as a major centre for medical health and medical research".
After structural and medical problems with the building delayed the hospital's opening multiple times, the hospital officially opened on 12 May 2018although some departments started operating earlier than that.
Outpatients
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other heal ...
began to be accepted on 14 May 2018. Surgery opened on 28 May 2018, followed by the emergency department on 10 June 2018 coinciding with the closure of Princess Margaret Hospital.
Transport
PCH is from the Perth city centre, adjacent to Winthrop Avenue and opposite the western boundary of
Kings Park.
Drop off and pick up bays are available outside the main entrance and the emergency department.
Paid parking may be available in the basement carpark at PCH (accessible from the southern end of Hospital Avenue), and in the QEII multi-deck carpark (accessible from Winthrop Avenue).
The nearest public transport stops are along Hospital Avenue and Monash Avenue, operated by
Transperth
Transperth is the public transport system for Perth and surrounding areas in Western Australia. It is managed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government organisation, and consists of train, bus and ferry services. Bus operat ...
.
A pedestrian bridge, dual-named as
The Kids' Bridge and Koolangka Bridge, was built in 2021, linking PCH with
Kings Park.
Controversy
In April 2021, seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died, reportedly within 15 minutes of "a doctor finally" seeing her,
at Perth Children's Hospital after waiting about two hours in the emergency department before doctors attended to her, despite her parents asking for help "four or five times".
A month prior, emergency nurses at the hospital had formally warned of staffing levels and safety, pointing out "several incidents resulting in significant harm to patients".
See also
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List of hospitals in Western Australia
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Health care in Australia
Health care in Australia operates under a shared public-private model underpinned by the Medicare (Australia), Medicare system, the national Single-payer healthcare, single-payer funding model. States and territories of Australia, State and ...
References
External links
*
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{{Hospitals in Perth
Children's hospitals in Australia
Hospitals in Perth, Western Australia
Hospitals established in 2018