The Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital is celebrating its first birthday.
It’s been a busy year for the hospital’s more than 800 staff, who have helped deliver more than 6000 babies.
Tallia Baez Mikhael, also celebrated her first birthday and will forever share a special connection with the hospital as the first baby born there.
Tallia was the first of 6,054 babies – including 102 sets of twins – born at the hospital in the past year.
But the hospital doesn’t just provide maternity services, it also offers paediatric services and features the area’s first neonatal intensive care unit to treat the most critically ill patients.
Since opening, the hospital has treated 22,780 patients, including 10,434 children
It includes 20 maternity delivery rooms, 237 beds, 39 special care nursery cots, four theatres and additional clinics, and covers more floor space than the MCG.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the hospital’s first birthday was a special milestone for the west.
“It is wonderful to celebrate this special milestone and I thank the hundreds of staff who have delivered the very best maternity and paediatric care to sick children when they were most vulnerable,” she said.
“This hospital means so much to local families and the thousands of mums who have had their baby here.”
The hospital is forecast to deliver 7,000 babies each year by 2026.
Tate Papworth
