It’s been more than 12 months in the planning, but the move of patients to the new Royal Children’s Hospital is now ahead of schedule and on track to have all patients moved to the new site by early afternoon.

Right on the target time of 7.00 am, patients started their move journey via the purpose-built passageways, from the old site to the new.

The first patient was Christian, an 11 year-old cancer patient, who moved into the new Kookaburra (Cancer) Ward.

As at 12 noon, 86% of patients have been successfully moved, with some remaining patients still to be moved from the intensive care unit and our newborn unit.

The new Emergency Department opened at 8.00 am with the first ambulance arrival at 8.30 am. The last patient from the Emergency Department was moved at 11.30 am. We are now fully operational in our new Emergency Department and patients requiring emergency medical care should go to the new hospital Emergency Department, via Entry 2 on Flemington Road

Theatres have now swung into action, with the first surgical procedure commencing at 11.00 am.

The Hon Ted Baillieu, Premier of Victoria and the Hon, David Davis, Minister for Health visited the new Emergency Department to meet with staff also this morning, as well as visiting patients and families in the Kookaburra (Cancer) Ward. The Premier and the Minister chatted to a young patient who was one of the first patients to settle into the ward. Every patient to move to the new hosiptal was greeted by a new RCH teddy bear, donated by Build-A-Bear.

With the move still underway, access to the new hospital is still restricted to children who require emergency medical attention and families of inpatients.

We would like to thank all staff for their hard work and efforts in planning and implementing move day. It is without doubt testament to the skill and dedication of our staff that this move is on track as planned.