Blacktown Hospital

Blacktown Hospital
Blacktown Mount Druitt Health
Western Sydney Local Health District
Geography
Location Blacktown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates 33°46′32″S 150°55′03″E / 33.7756°S 150.9175°E / -33.7756; 150.9175Coordinates: 33°46′32″S 150°55′03″E / 33.7756°S 150.9175°E / -33.7756; 150.9175
Organisation
Care system Public Medicare (AU)
Hospital type Teaching
Affiliated university

University of Sydney

University of Western Sydney
Services
Emergency department Yes
Beds 570
History
Founded April 1965
Links
Website Official Website
Lists Hospitals in Australia

Blacktown Hospital is an acute care hospital in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia, about 34 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. Together with Mount Druitt Hospital and associated community health centres,[1] it is a part of the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD).[2]

Blacktown Hospital provides a wide range of health services including:[3]

It operates a 24-hour emergency department and a full Intensive Care Unit and CCU. It also has 24 hour medical imaging and pathology services on site.

The hospital is a teaching hospital of the Western Sydney University's Blacktown-Mount Druitt Clinical School and University of Sydney's Western Clinical School.

The Hospital also includes Bungarribee House, a psychiatric unit that, along with Cumberland Hospital provides mental health services to western Sydney. The hospital's sub-acute mental health care facility, called the Melaleuca Unit, opened in 2014.

History

The original Blacktown Hospital building was opened in January 1965 by then NSW Health Minister Billy Sheahan and the first patients were admitted on April 28 the same year. The original hospital had a capacity for 160 beds; this building still exists and is now the Regional Dialysis Centre.

Nurses were given strict dress code instructions before the opening, including no eye make-up and wearing a distinct shade of lipstick. Matron Erella Macauley was made the first director of nursing after opening the first nursing school in Blacktown in 1964. In its first year, nurses helped deliver 500 babies.

A new hospital building was completed in 1999 to meet growing healthcare demand. It was designed by McConel Smith & Johnson. This building currently houses the hospital's emergency department, some wards, clinics and operating theatres.

Expansion Project

In 2012, the NSW Government announced Blacktown & Mount Druitt Hospitals Expansion Project Stage 1.[4] In the first stage of expansion, Blacktown Hospital projects included facilities for sub-acute mental health, more parking, infrastructure and service enhancements and a new clinical services building for cancer, cardiac, respiratory and aged care, with an extensive art and culture program. Stage 1 concluded with the opening of the new clinical services building in April 2016. The building was officially opened by the Premier of NSW Mike Baird and Minister for Health Jillian Skinner on Tuesday 17 May 2016.

Stage 2 of the project[5] is currently underway with early works for a new acute services building and multi-storey car park. Construction of the car park will commence in late 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2017; construction of the acute services building will commence in 2017 and will be completed in 2019. The new acute services building will include facilities for emergency, operating theatres, intensive care, maternity, birthing, newborn health, and paediatrics. Further refurbishment of the existing 1999 hospital building will be completed in 2020 to provide expanded ambulatory care and other services.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Community Health Centre in Blacktown Archived September 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ at WSLHD
  3. ↑ Blacktown Hospital services Archived August 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ BMDH Project Update No. 1 October 2012
  5. ↑ http://www.bmdhproject.health.nsw.gov.au
  6. ↑ http://bmdhproject.health.nsw.gov.au
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