By Charlene Gatt
WESTERN Hospital has only had seven additions or redevelopments since opening its doors in 1953 – with one occurring after a major power failure shut down the hospital.
In week five of Star’s Help our Hospital campaign, we take a look at the history of the hospital and any work done to it over the past 58 years.
Western Hospital was opened in 1953 as the Footscray and District Hospital, a 213 bed facility that was built from £1,250,000 worth of community donations after The Argus newspaper highlighted the need for a hospital in the West in 1921.
According to a history board at Western Hospital, the hospital had its greatest period of growth during the 1990s.
In 1990, then Premier of Victoria John Cain officially opened the Stage One of the North block, comprising new operating theatres, a Sterile Supply Department and a School of Nursing.
Stage Two of the North Block was opened the following year and included a new Emergency Department, a 14-bed intensive care ward, 10-bed coronary care ward and additional medical, surgical and orthopaedic beds.
A new East Block – featuring an auditorium, pathology, library and front entrance – was opened in 1993, followed by a 12-bed Community Drug and Alcohol Service Withdrawal Unit in 1996.
Two years later, a new $1.8 million Cardiac Angiography Suite was opened.
Then in 2000, the State Government reduced the size of the health network despite the growing population, and joins Western Hospital, Sunshine Hopsital and Williamstown Hospital into Western Health.
The hospital hit crisis point in January 2007 during a power failure when a back-up generator failed and the hospital’s second generator struggled to keep up with demand.
Patients were mass evacuated and transported to other hospitals, prompting the State Government to allocate $25 million to upgrade four wards and replace infrastructure in the 2007-08 State Budget.
Today, the hospital has 325 overnight beds – the same amount it had in the 2006-07 financial year.
