Queensland Children's Hospital

Queensland Children's Hospital
Queensland Health
Main entrance of the Queensland Children's Hospital
Map
Geography
LocationSouth Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Coordinates27°29′02″S 153°01′35″E / 27.483961725459036°S 153.02635997781977°E / -27.483961725459036; 153.02635997781977
Organisation
Care systemPublic (Medicare)
TypeSpecialist
Services
Emergency departmentYes
Beds359 overnight inpatient beds
SpecialityPaediatrics
Helipad(ICAO: YXQC)
History
Opened29 November 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-29)
Links
Websitechildrens.health.qld.gov.au/qch

The public Queensland Children's Hospital (QCH), on Stanley Street in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is the primary facility of Children's Health Queensland. QCH has an emergency department, an intensive, critical care unit and offers specialist general medical and surgical services.[1]

The QCH is categorised as a level-six service under the Clinical Services Capability Framework 2014,[2] meaning it is responsible for providing general health services to children and young people in the greater Brisbane metropolitan area, as well as tertiary-level care.[3]

The hospital employs more than 2,500 staff from a range of disciplines. In its first full year of operations (2015), QCH admitted almost 38,000 patients, saw 63,634 emergency presentations, performed 14,113 operations, and provided 188,765 specialist outpatient appointments.[4]

History

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QCH was opened as the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital on 29 November, 2014. The concept of a single specialist paediatric hospital for Brisbane was a key recommendation from a task force that was commissioned to examine Queensland paediatric cardiac services in 2006.[5] The Queensland Government assembled the task force in light of the Mellis Review, which found the model of paediatric care at the time was fragmented and unsustainable. It recommended that all services should be consolidated into a single children’s hospital.[6]

Into one new facility, QCH combined the former Royal Children's Hospital, the former Mater Children's Hospital, and the paediatric cardiac services formerly offered by The Prince Charles Hospital.[7] The estimated construction cost of QCH was A$1.2 billion. The 12-level facility is the largest children's health service in Queensland.

Hospital name

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Workers removing the L from the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital building to facilitate the renaming as Queensland Children's Hospital

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 announced that the hospital would be named after Queensland clinician Lady Phyllis Cilento.[8][9]

On 21 September 2018, health minister Steven Miles announced that the hospital would revert to its original name of Queensland Children's Hospital, after staff petitioned the Queensland government to change the name to a more "conventional" one, which the hospital's foundation said would secure more money from overseas donors.[10]

Miles claimed that an online poll showed strong support for the name change. However, it was later revealed that many votes for the name change came from a small number of government IP addresses. This lead to allegations that the government may have attempted to rig the vote,[11] and Miles was referred to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).[12] On 13 December 2018 workers began removing the words Lady Cilento from the sign on the building.

Education and research

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The QCH is known for its role in medical research, undertaking research programs with universities such as The University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology. It is co-located with the Centre for Children's Health Research,[13] which officially opened on 27 November 2015.[14]

The nine-level centre houses:

  • wet and dry laboratories;
  • pathology services;
  • a gait laboratory;
  • a nutrition 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.[15]

Design

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Lady Cilento Children's Hospital
The design of the hospital maximises access to outside views and natural light.

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.[16]

The building design has received a number of awards, including:

At the 2015 Design and Health International Academy Awards,[18] the Hospital design was awarded as the overall winner for Autogenic Design Project for Healthcare Environment. In addition, it was awarded Highly Commended for International Health Project over 40,000m2.[citation needed]

Schooling

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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.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Our Hospital and Health Service". Children's Health Queensland. 14 January 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  2. ^ "Clinical Services Capability Framework (CSCF) for Public and Licensed Private Health Facilities v3.2, 2014". Archived from the original on 17 February 2016.
  3. ^ "Children's Health Queensland Annual Report 2014-15" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2016.
  4. ^ "Children's Health Queensland Facebook page". Archived from the original on 28 September 2020.
  5. ^ Queensland Health (2006). "Report of the Taskforce on Paediatric Cardiac Services". Queensland Health.
  6. ^ Mellis, C (2006). "Review of Paediatric Cardiac Services in Queensland (the Mellis Review)". Queensland Health.
  7. ^ Justo, Robert (2020). "Queensland Paediatric Cardiac Service: Lessons from evolution to a unified service in a tertiary children's hospital". Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. 56 (6): 833–837. doi:10.1111/jpc.14914. PMID 32468664. S2CID 218986064.
  8. ^ Smee, Ben (28 August 2018). "Staff call for hospital renaming over Lady Cilento's racist and homophobic views". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Wardill, Steven (16 December 2013). "Queensland Children's Hospital to be named in honour of Lady Phyllis Cilento". Courier-Mail. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  10. ^ "Lady Cilento Children's Hospital to be renamed at a cost of $500,000". ABC News. 21 September 2018. Archived from the original on 21 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  11. ^ Moore, Tony (26 November 2018). "Labor lied about Lady Cilento Hospital name change: Galaxy poll". Brisbane Times. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  12. ^ "Lady Cilento name change assessed by CCC". www.9news.com.au. 22 November 2018. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  13. ^ "Centre for Children's Health Research". Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  14. ^ "Queensland's $134 million children's health research centre launched". Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  15. ^ "Queensland Children's Tumour Bank". University of Queensland. 18 August 2016. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  16. ^ "Lady Cilento Children's Hospital | Conrad Gargett". Archello. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  17. ^ "2015 Queensland State Architecture Awards". Australian Institute of Architects. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  18. ^ "2015 Design & Health International Academy Awards Winners". Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  19. ^ "Lady Cilento Children's Hospital school". Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
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