Austin Hospital

Description

Overview
The Austin Hospital is located in Heidelberg 20 minutes northeast of Melbournes city centre The hospital was reopened in 2005 after a major redevelopment see History It is housed in one of two new hospital towers the other tower occupied by Mercy Hospital for Women

The redeveloped Austin Hospital now features
400 acute beds

a 30bed intensive care unit

one of the states largest adult emergency units
and a specialist sixbed unit for children

a purposebuilt 26bed hightech spinal unit to
serve all of Victoria and Tasmania

infectious diseases isolation rooms in each ward

almost a quarter of rooms as singlebed rooms

en suite facilities in all rooms

additional and refurbished operating theatres

an expanded mental health precinct with 55 mental
health beds including 15 adult acute psychiatry
beds nine beds for the Mood and Eating Disorder
Unit and six beds for the Parent Infant Unit

a unique teaching training and research precinct
including a teaching space and laboratory on each
level of the Austin Hospital Tower

History

Established in 1882 the Austin had five name changes that included the quotAustin Hospital for Incurablesquot before becoming the Austin Hospital

Throughout the years Austin Hospital has always been a noted for its progressive approach to medicine and health care and has achieved national and international recognition in many fields Many of the clinical areas that the Austin is renowned for today have their roots in the hospitals early history

Cancer for example was one of the quotincurablequot illnesses first patients were admitted with In the 1920s the Austin Hospital began experimenting with quotXrayquot treatment for cancers and by 1935 the Austin was the largest cancer hospital in Australia

Austin Healths current cancer services at Austin Hospital and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital will be consolidated into a comprehensive centre on the Austin site through a capital appeal for the Olivia NewtonJohn Cancer Centre

Visit the Olivia NewtonJohn Cancer Centre Appeal website for more details

The Austins expertise in spinal injuries was developed from caring for quotincurablesquot with paraplegia and later in rehabilitating children who had survived polio and early victims of car accidents

Respiratory medicine at the Austin had is origins in consumption or tuberculosis and neurosciences care can be traced back to early stroke victims suffering paralysis

In 1939 the first operating theatre and accommodation for acute medical and surgical patients was established

In 1956 the Austins comprehensive spinal injury treatment and rehabilitation services were fully operational Four years later the Austin Hospital became a general hospital with the opening of the outpatient and casualty block

An affiliation with The University of Melbourne commenced in 1965 when the Austin Hospital Clinical School was established Austin Health now hosts The University of Melbournes departments of medicine surgery psychiatry psychology and physiotherapy

The Austin Hospital and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital amalgamated on 1 April 1995 to become Victorias largest tertiary referral centre providing a broad range of patient services whilst enhancing established teaching and research profiles

From August 1995 to 31 October 1997 the Austin was part of the North Eastern Health Care Network On 1 November 1997 the Austin again became a standalone medical centre

The Austin changed its name from the Austin amp Repatriation Medical Centre AampRMC on 30th April 2003 to Austin Health but its three facilities Austin Hospital Heidelberg Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital West Heidelberg and Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre Kew first merged in 1995

The new Austin Health included the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre and the then psychiatric services at Larundel which were transferred to the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in October 1999 Renal and respiratory services originally provided by Fairfield Hospital were consolidated with Austin Health in June 1996

The Victorian State Government redeveloped the Austin Hospital site opening the new inpatient facility and the newly colocated Mercy Hospital for Women in May 2005 It is the largest hospital redevelopment ever undertaken in Victoria and one of the largest in Australia Visit the ARM Project website for details

The project has cemented Austin Healths reputation as one of Australias leading teaching training and research centres with some of the best facilities in the country

New mental health facilities will be opened on the Austin Hospital site late in 2006 The facilities will include 55 mental health beds as part of an expanded mental health precinct with 15 adult acute psychiatry beds High Dependency Unit nine beds for the Mood and Eating Disorder Unit and six beds for the Mother and Baby Unit These beds will transfer from existing facilities at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital