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Description

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The Royal Hobart Hospital RHH is Tasmanias largest hospital and the major referral centre As the major centre of clinical teaching and research it has a strong collaborative relationship with the University of Tasmania and other institutions

The RHH provides acute sub acute mental health and aged care inpatient and ambulatory services to a population of approximately 240000 people in the Southern Region and currently operates from a maximum base of 550 physical beds including 460 acute overnight and 90 day beds The RHH has 2190 full time equivalent staff or paid headcount of 3015

A comprehensive range of general and specialty medical and surgical services are provided including many statewide services such as cardiac surgery neurosurgery extensive burns treatment hyperbaric medicine neonatal amp paediatric intensive care and high risk obstetrics

Critical care services are often the patients first point of contact and are divided into intensive care services and emergency medicine services The RHH provides a 24hour sevendayaweek Emergency Department ED and critical care comprises a ninebed Intensive Care Unit including cardiothoracic intensive care and fivebed High Dependency Unit The new ED was opened in 2007 and includes 41 treatment spaces resuscitation bays an assessment and planning unit and a short stay observation unit

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History

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The Royal Hobart Hospital RHH is one of the oldest hospitals in Australia founded in the early months of British settlement in 1804 Maps and sketches by surveyor GP Harris circa 1804 and 1805 indicate that hospital accommodation was provided on the northern side of the Hobart Rivulet on the current hospital site Patients were treated in tents wooden huts or a series of rented premises before the first purposebuilt hospital the new general hospital opened in 1820 It was Lachlan Macquarie Governor of New South Wales who ordered the construction of this first hospital building during his visit to Van Diemens Land in 1811 the same governor who in 1810 set aside land for the building of Sydneys first permanent hospital in Macquarie Street later known as The Rum Hospital The original twostorey 1820 building contained six wards and could comfortably accommodate 56 patients although there are accounts of 70plus patients being squeezed

The growth of the colony brought a continuous demand for more beds and new buildings In 1843 a new hospital opened nearby on Liverpool Street Noted for its handsome style of construction this sandstone building endured through a lot of other redevelopment over the following century to be eventually demolished in the late 1930s as the new acute building today known as C block opened

As the colony expanded the hospital continued to grow on the site which we now know as the city block bounded by Liverpool Collins Argyle and Campbell Street Each passing decade saw old buildings replaced by more modern structures Like most other hospitals redevelopment work has always gone on and many millions of dollars have gone into the modern facilities available today

In 1937 the title of Royal was conferred on the hospital together with a coat of arms incorporating heraldry representing a teaching hospital located in the City and Port of Hobart The Latin motto underneath the arms is translated as To Care With Compassion

The post war decades were characterised by further physical development and the hospital obtaining postgraduate recognition in many specialities and reaching the status of an undergraduate teaching hospital Between 1995 and 1999 a series of significant projects were undertaken to upgrade and redevelop nearly 80 of the campus to support its status as a tertiary and teaching centre Also in 1999 the Hobart Private Hospital was colocated on to the RHH site occupying the Queen Alexandra Wing Recent developments have included a new 154m Emergency Department opened in March 2007 and the infill building completed in late 2007 containing the States first combined neonatal and paediatric intensive care unit an expanded pain management clinic two new operating theatres and recovery rooms and additional support areas