The new Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) project is the largest hospital redevelopment undertaken by the state. The project outcomes are expected to improve the quality of tertiary health services for children in both metropolitan Melbourne and other regions of Victoria.
Designed in the fifties and opened on its current site in 1963, the RCH is a key community asset. The RCH is the only hospital in Victoria solely devoted to the care of sick children and:
• provides specialist paediatric services to the whole state including tertiary, secondary and primary infant, child and adolescent health services
• is the designated statewide provider of paediatric major trauma services, paediatric intensive care and high complexity paediatric services
• treats children from interstate and overseas who require the hospital's unique and specialised care
• plays a major role in research and education, through its strong partnerships with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the University of Melbourne's Department of Paediatrics.
The new RCH project commenced with the development of the RCH service plan in 2004. This plan detailed the future service philosophy and needs, and also proposed new models of care for the hospital. A review of the service plan was undertaken in 2005 to incorporate further changes relating to future service profiles, trends and changing patterns of demand, as well as new service development needs and models of care.
Together, the RCH Service Plan (2004) and the RCH Service Plan Review (2005) were the planning foundations for the new RCH.
In May 2005, the Government committed $37.9 million in the 2005-06 budget to fast track master-planning and upgrade existing facilities prior to the redevelopment of the RCH. The new RCH was to include 340 beds, modern wards and specialist medical equipment. The planning process was to determine the future of the existing RCH buildings.
The master plan was completed in September 2005 and a final business case was submitted to government in November 2005.
In November 2007 the government announced that:
• the Children's Health Partnership (CHP) would design, build, finance and maintain the hospital for 25 years, and provide a range of extra facilities to benefit patients, their families and hospital staff
• the new hospital would be built immediately to the west of the existing RCH site on Flemington Road in Parkville, with the existing research precinct building and the front entry building to be retained and incorporated into the new RCH complex
• the new hospital was scheduled to open in December 2011
• following the relocation, much of the old site would be demolished and reinstated as parkland, replacing land taken up for the new RCH project.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) has the lead role in overseeing delivery of the new RCH project on behalf of the state.
The project is subject to review under the government's Gateway Review Process. To date the project has been subject to a strategic assessment (Gate 1) in early 2005 and the business case was reviewed (Gate 2) in October 2005.