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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
Partners
Monash Medical Centre was the first of the large medical institutions to take medicine to the people, breaking the tradition of patients having to journey to the inner city where, traditionally, all the major hospitals had been based. Despite considerable resentment, from medical staff in particular, and claims that this was a politically self-serving exercise which would disrupt established medical practices, the Centre opened in Clayton in 1987 as a teaching and medical research hospital affiliated with Monash University and servicing Melbourne's fast-growing south-eastern corridor. The Centre is an amalgamation of the Queen Victoria Medical Centre, which provided specialist strengths in obstetrics and gynaecology and in paediatrics; the Moorabbin Hospital, a local community hospital; and Prince Henry's Hospital which provided strengths in surgery, medicine and adult psychiatry. The relocation of the 'Queen Vic' in 1987 and Prince Henry's in 1991, together with the affiliation of Moorabbin Hospital in 1987, gave rise to the first Relocation and Redeployment Agreement between the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the Health Department of Victoria and hospital management. The success of this agreement led to similar ones being negotiated for other major health projects. In 1996, in yet another shake-up of the State's medical system, the Monash Medical Centre became part of the broad-based Southern Health Care Network.