THE official launch of Brisbane’s St Vincent’s Hospital on June 25 marks the continuation of the mission it started as Mt Olivet Hospital in 1957.
The iconic Kangaroo Point landmark that was Mt Olivet Hospital, one of Queensland’s top providers of palliative care, has been transformed in a $40 million redevelopment.
The 164-bed Catholic not-for-profit St Vincent’s Hospital caters for private and public patients.
The hospital is diversifying its services with a focus on general medicine and gerontology, persistent pain management, rehabilitation and palliative care medicine.
Deputy Premier Paul Lucas will conduct the official launch, and the ceremony will include a blessing by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Oudeman of Brisbane with representatives from St Vincent’s Health Australia, the Sisters of Charity and Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters in attendance.
St Vincent’s Hospital Brisbane general manager Daniele Doyle said the hospital would carry on the mission of its founders, the Sisters of Charity, by offering care to patients who may not be a priority in other tertiary hospitals.
Ms Doyle said the hospital’s expanded services continued a tradition of caring for those in need.
“By offering medical beds and providing services for the management of chronic disease which often encompasses the aging, St Vincent’s Hospital Brisbane will be helping to free-up beds in surgically focused hospitals,” she said.
The hospital will have an upgraded license to support more acute medical care.
These new facilities offer patients and their families three new 30-bed wards – a general medicine and gerontology ward, a rehabilitation facility and persistent pain management program, and a palliative care centre.
A state-of-the-art gymnasium and new café are available.
Onsite diagnostic imaging by Queensland X-ray has also been established.
Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane turned the first sod for the start of the St Vincent’s Hospital redevelopment in February 2008.
The hospital’s redevelopment is part of a wider master plan under review.
The plan proposes to redevelop the whole Kangaroo Point site and is expected to be complete within seven years.
Ms Doyle said the Sisters of Charity and the name St Vincent’s are synonymous with excellence in health care and healing ministry and that St Vincent’s Brisbane is part of the wider St Vincent’s and Holy Spirit Health in Queensland and St Vincent’s Health Australia group.
