Hospitals 04 May 2019

Video story: The Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital

Please note: As of 1 February 2021, the Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority (VHHSBA) became the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA).

The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital is providing world-class paediatric and maternity care to women and children in Melbourne’s west.

This video showcases some of the hospital’s features and remembers the late Joan Kirner, a tireless voice for women, children and families.

Learn more about the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital via our dedicated project page

Transcript

[IMAGES: A montage is shown of Joan Kirner visiting schoolchildren in a classroom, speaking in the lower House of parliament, picking up rubbish in Port Phillip Bay, laughing with women and children, and talking to media.]

“Joan Kirner will be remembered for achieving many things. Victoria’s first female premier, a companion of the Order of Australia, a social justice warrior. But she’ll also be remembered as a tireless voice for women, children and families. Always ready to argue for better resources and support for the community she represented for so long, and for so well.”

[IMAGES: The colourful façade of the Joan Kirner Women and Children’s Hospital is shown.]
“The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital is a fitting testament to her legacy."

[IMAGES: A busy road is shown with sprawling houses and the Melbourne skyline in the background. An onscreen fact says: Over 7,000 babies a year by 2026. Two nurses in scrubs and hair caps smile at each other. Staff walk past a wall painted with a cute mural depicting babies.]

“Melbourne’s west has seen rapid and continuous growth for many years now, with increasing numbers building homes, raising families, and having beautiful babies. That’s seen a growing demand for women’s and children’s health services.”

[IMAGES: A vast timber atrium is shown with modern artworks including a colourful tapestry that says ‘women of the west’, and playful sculptures of children.]

“The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital provides a family-centred facility that allows women in the west to give birth closer to home and to their loved ones, and one that will care for thousands of children in the decades to come.”

[IMAGES: Rooms inside the hospital are shown, including a staff station, a high-tech incubator, a birthing bath, and an operating theatre. Onscreen facts say: Neo-natal intensive care unit, 39 special care nursery cots, 64 maternity beds, 32 paediatric beds, 20 labour delivery rooms, and Four dedicated operating theatres.]

“The new hospital includes the world’s first ever neonatal intensive care unit, more women’s and children’s inpatient beds, labour delivery rooms, operating theatres and specialist clinics.”

[IMAGES: The atrium is shown with a very tall floral statue of a woman. Then a huge screen with a colourful aquatic scene is shown. A beautiful sculpture of flowers and butterflies hangs from the ceiling and the flowers open and close.]

“Alongside its modern health care facilities, the hospital features eye-catching art and design elements, a stunning, five-metre-tall installation, interactive screens that invite children and parents to play, and ever-changing kinetic artworks create an atmosphere of life, energy and wellbeing.”

[IMAGES: Joan Kirner is shown visiting a nurse feeding a baby, then a small child. Then a black screen with a portrait photo of Joan Kirner and text that says ‘In honour of The Honorable Joan Elizabeth Kirner AC, Victoria’s first female Premier (1990–1992). Victorian Health and Human Services Building Authority.]

“The new Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital: building happier, healthier communities in Melbourne’s west.”

[IMAGES: A black screen with text that says ‘Authorised by the Department of Health and Human Services 50 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Spoken by S. Godfrey’.]