St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne

History

St Vincent's Hospital was opened in 1893 as a Catholic hospital owned and operated by the Sisters of Charity. Initially conceived as a branch of the Sydney institution of the same name the hospital was intended to be a charitable institution, which was hoped would help bolster Melbourne's minimal health care. This idea was given avid support by Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop, Dr Thomas Carr, who welcomed the idea of a hospital to take care of the 'poor and sick and abandoned children... the young girls of poor parents and servants...' These ideals corresponded directly with prevalent Victorian ideas of benevolence, which were particularly popular with the middle classes. In these early days, the hospital was quite small, with room for less than 100 beds. The hospital soon built up ties with the working class suburb of Fitzroy (in which the hospital was located), which had been deliberately selected by the founding sisters of the Hospital, with many of the poorer residents taking advantage of the advent of a charitable hospital opening up on their doorstep.

Over time it became a large public hospital, with close links to the Mercy Hospital, Melbourne. It also has a St Vincent's Private Hospital associated with it.

In July 2002, the Sisters of Charity Health Service, Melbourne was rebranded as St Vincent's Health.

A new building was recently constructed behind the original building, which is now heritage-listed. The new hospital has been widely praised for its innovative design - for example, complementary medical and surgical specialties (such as neurology/neurosurgery) exist on opposite sides of the same ward, there are decentralised nurses' stations, and satellite pharmacies on every second floor stocking locally relevant medications.

The Druid's Wing

The Druid's Wing was opened at St Vincent's on Sunday 11 May 1913 by Dr Mannix, the Roman Catholic coadjutor Archbishop of Melbourne. It housed the hospital's first outpatients' department and a residence for nurses in training. The building has been vacant since 1995 due to the construction of the new Inpatient Services Building. It is due for demolition, starting in February 2015, to make way for the new Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery.

The Clinical School

A clinical school was opened in St Vincent's Hospital in 1909 as part of the University of Melbourne. It is one of the clinical schools at the University of Melbourne (the others being based at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Austin Hospital, Western Hospital, the Northern Hospital, Epping, Goulburn Valley Health, Ballarat Base Hospital and Northeast Health).

St Vincent's Hospital is also a clinical school of the University of Notre Dame, Sydney. Third and fourth year students have placements in geriatrics, anaesthetics and ICU.

The hospital also offers a wide range of postgraduate training programs.

St Vincent's Pathology

St Vincent's Pathology is a major pathology service in Victoria, operated out of St Vincent's Hospital. Services offered include anatomical pathology, biochemistry, haematology, cytogenetics and microbiology.

Clinical specialties and services offered

There are several medical and surgical wards at St Vincent's Hospital. There is also a psychiatric unit and an Emergency department.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list.

Medical

Surgical

Mental health

St Vincent's Health operates a mental health ward and an Enhanced Crisis Assessment & Treatment Team & Triage Service (ECATT) that assesses patients in the Emergency Department and manages patients with acute psychiatric disorders who are a potential risk to themselves or others in the community.