Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital


The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital is a hospital located in Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The hospital has 929 beds, and it is estimated that 65% of the patients served come from within of the hospital. It is the second largest hospital in Australia.
The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital campus is home to several research institutes:
The main building of the Bowen Hospital as it was initially known, was designed by Charles Tiffin and others. For a time it was also known as Brisbane General Hospital. In the 19th century the hospital dealt with some severe cases of tropical diseases due to Queensland's predominately tropical climate.
The hospital was created by the merging of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital in 2003. In the same year the hospital precinct was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
In January 2008 there was a public health scare over concerns about lead levels at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. Lead tests carried out at a Brisbane hospital found levels were safely below recommended standards. Queensland Health said there was no need to worry about children being exposed to lead at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital after air and surface swabs returned results below the levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In February 2008 the hospital was hit by a "super bug" outbreak. The bacteria, known as Vancomycin resistant enterococci or VRE. The hospital closed two 30-bed wards to new admissions in early December after 21 patients tested positive to VRE. Medical staff were forced to take extreme measures to stop the bacteria spreading.