Royal Children's Hospital

The Royal Children's Hospital is a children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

It is the major specialist paediatric hospital for Victoria and offers a full range of clinical services, tertiary care and health promotion and prevention programs for children and adolescents. It is a major teaching hospital with links to the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute based onsite.

The hospital was established in 1870 and moved to its present site in Parkville on the corner of Flemington Road and Gatehouse Street in 1963. It overlooks the trees and lawns of Royal Park.

RCH also has two acute psychiatric inpatient facilities, called the Banksia Unit, for children up to the age of 18 years. The two locations are Dandenong and Footscray, Victoria.

The Good Friday Appeal is held annually to raise money for the hospital. It has been broadcast on the Seven TV network for over 40 years. The goal of the Appeal is to ensure that children with life threatening illnesses can have the best care. The 2007 appeal raised 11,788,970 dollars, (up 1.5 million from the previous year).

In 2005, the Victorian State Government announced plans to build a brand new 340-bed home for RCH adjacent to the current site. The new RCH is expected to be completed in 2011.

The winning bid of the redevelopment is lead by Babcock and Brown with architects Bates Smart. It is expected that work on the site will commence late 2007.