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John Hunter Hospital
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | John Hunter Hospital |
| org_group | |
| image | |
| caption | |
| pushpin_map | Australia New South Wales |
| coordinates | |
| pushpin_map_caption | |
| logo_size | |
| region | New Lambton Heights |
| state | New South Wales |
| country | AU |
| healthcare | Medicare |
| funding | Public |
| type | Teaching |
| standards | |
| emergency | Yes, major trauma centre |
| helipad | |
| h1-number | 1 |
| h1-surface | concrete |
| affiliation | University of Newcastle |
| patron | |
| network | |
| beds | 820 inclusive of JHCH and Royal Newcastle Centre |
| founded | |
| Nick Greiner | |
| Premier of New South Wales | |
| website | |
| other_links |
| h1-number = 1 | h1-surface = concrete Nick Greiner Premier of New South Wales
The John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children's Hospital (sometimes known as the JHH and JHCH respectively), is a teaching hospital and children's hospital in Newcastle, and northern New South Wales, Australia. The 820 bed hospital is the main teaching hospital of the University of Newcastle. The hospital contains the only trauma centre in New South Wales outside the Sydney Metropolitan Area, and has the busiest emergency department in the state. John Hunter is the busiest trauma hospital in the country.
Overview
The John Hunter health complex consists of 820 beds in total, and is co-located next to the 174 bed Newcastle Private Hospital, as well as the regional Hunter Area Pathology Service which provides tertiary level pathology testing. The complex consists of a single building, which is divided into 694 adult beds and another 126 paediatric beds in the John Hunter Children's Hospital.
The Royal Newcastle Centre (formerly Royal Newcastle Hospital), opened as an extension wing to the John Hunter Hospital in April 2006, providing 144 of these beds. Patients from the Hunter Region and beyond are referred to John Hunter for treatment in a range of specialities. The John Hunter Children's Hospital and Royal Newcastle Centre are located within the same building as the John Hunter Hospital. Also on the same grounds are Rankin Park Hospital (Rehab), Newcastle Private Hospital and the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI).
Specialty services provided
The JHH and JHCH are tertiary level hospitals, and provide the following specialties and subspecialties:
| Specialty | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Anaesthesia | Including sub-specialties in cardiac, neuro, obstetric, paediatric & regional anaesthesia as well as pain medicine (both acute and chronic pain services are available) | |
| Intensive care | The 37 bed intensive care complex provides both adult and paediatric ICU. The 29 bed adult ICU provides of general medical, general surgical, cardiac, trauma & neurosurgical intensive care. | |
| Paediatric intensive care | The newly built 8 bed PICU was opened in 2017 and is one of 3 tertiary PICUs in the state. Currently funded for 4 beds, and provides non-invasive and invasive ventilator support as well as haemodynamic support. | |
| Neonatal intensive care | 18 NICU and 24 special care beds, providing care for children born as early as 23 weeks gestation. | |
| Retrieval medicine | The Hunter New England Aeromedical Retrieval Service provides both primary (pre-hospital) and secondary (inter-hospital) adult and paediatric retrieval services. Doctors from anaesthesia, intensive care and emergency provide the medical staff, whilst ICU nurses provide nursing support for secondary retrievals. The secondary retrieval service is led by the on-call intensive care specialist. | |
| Emergency medicine | Providing tertiary adult and paediatric emergency care | |
| Trauma | The JHH and JHCH is the busiest trauma centre in the state and the second busiest nationally. It has a dedicated trauma surgical team as well as utilising the expertise of sub-specialty surgeons when required. | |
| Surgical specialties | ||
| Medical specialties | ||
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | Including gynae-oncology and high risk maternal-fetal medicine unit | |
| Radiology | Xrays, CT, MRI, nuclear medicine and interventional radiology including embolization. | |
| Psychiatry | Both adult and paediatric psychiatry services are provided, both in-hospital and community. |
Wards
The John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children's Hospital consists of the following ~30 bed wards. Wards are designated by their horizontal position along the hospitals long corridor (by letter) and the number indicates which level of the hospital the ward is on (Levels 1–3). Hence ward E3 is positioned above E2 and next door to ward F3.
- Ward E1: General Medicine
- Ward E2: Urology/Rheumatology
- Ward E3: Orthopaedics
- Ward F1: Orthopaedics
- Ward F2: Immunology/Respiratory/General Medicine
- Ward F3: Cardiovascular
- Ward G1: Trauma/Special Surgery
- Ward G2: Neurology/Neurosurgery
- Ward G3: Cardiology/Gastroenterology
- Ward H1: Children's Medical
- Ward H3: Emergency Short Stay (ESSU) + Medical Acute Care Unit (MACU)
- Ward J1: Children's Surgical and Oncology
- Ward J2: Adolescent, Day Stay and Sleep Unit
- Ward J3: General Surgery
- Ward K1: Nephrology/Dialysis
- Ward K2: Maternity/Post-Natal
- Ward K3: Gynaecology/Gynaecology Oncology
- AGSU: Acute General Surgical Unit
- CCU: Coronary Care Unit
- ED: Emergency Department
- Transplant: Transplant
- ICU/HD: Intensive Care Unit/High Dependency Unit
- PICU: Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
- NICU: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
- NEXUS: Adolescent Mental Health
Origin of name
While a full page advertisement taken out by the John Hunter Hospital in the Newcastle Herald on 30 January 1991 references three notable John Hunters, the advertisement only explicitly references that the hospital was named after the former Governor, and although the advertisement states "Here's to the Governor who forged a nation, here's to the John Hunters who achieved so much in medical science, and here's to our John Hunter Hospital", the advertisement only explicitly references the former Governor of New South Wales as the namesake of the hospital, stating "...[S]everal dedicated and visionary people made enormous contributions toward building a nation that would one day stand as an example to the rest of the world. One such man was Governor John Hunter. Our Valley is named in his honour. So, too, is the State's newest and most modern hospital, the John Hunter Hospital at New Lambton Heights."
The three John Hunters referenced in the advertisement are:
- John Hunter, a former governor of New South Wales and the namesake of the whole Hunter region
- John Hunter, the famed 18th-century surgeon and pioneer of anatomical pathology, and
- John Irvine Hunter, an Australian anatomist who died in 1924 at the age of 26, having already been appointed the youngest anatomy professor at the University of Sydney
Solar array
In late 2021, a solar installation said to be the largest on any hospital in the world, was switched on at the John Hunter Hospital. It contains more than 5,000 solar panels, covers 12,000 square metres, and generates 3.24 gigawatt-hours per year.
Controversies
"Clinical Marshmallow" Incident
In January 2025, a hospital administrator accidentally sent an email to all junior doctors employed at the hospital calling them a "workforce of clinical marshmellows [sic]", after doctors questioned the decision to roster them for 10 night shifts in a row.
This prompted a large public response, including a public apology from senior hospital executive staff and a response from Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation
References
References
- "John Hunter Hospital". Hunter New England Area Health Service.
- (30 January 1991). "Newcastle Herald Supplement".
- (3 December 2021). "John Hunter Hospital has installed the 'biggest solar array on any hospital in the world'".
- (31 January 2025). "Australian hospital manager calls junior doctors ‘a workforce of clinical marshmellows’ in email stuff-up".
- (31 January 2025). "Statement on comments made at John Hunter Hospital".
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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