Shellharbour Hospital

Shellharbour Hospital
South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service
Geography
Location	Mount Warrigal, NSW, Australia
Coordinates
Organisation
Care system	Public Medicare (AU)
Type	District
Affiliated university	University of New South Wales, University of Wollongong
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	80
History
Opened	1986
Links
Website	sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au/Shellharbour_Hospital
Lists	Hospitals in Australia

Shellharbour Hospital is a major district hospital located in the Shellharbour area of New South Wales. It is part of the Southern network of the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service, and receives students from the University of New South Wales and University of Wollongong.

Services

Shellharbour Hospital provides medical, surgical, obstetric, emergency and psychiatry services to the Shoalhaven and northern Illawarra region. It operates 87 beds, an 8-bed Day Surgery unit, and 69 mental health in-patient beds. The hospital also has a satellite dialysis unit and is a leading provider of gynaecological and laparoscopic surgery in the Southern region. In the year 2006-7, there were over 15,000 admissions provided by 273 full-time equivalent staff.

A new 20-bed mental health unit, intended as a step-down service that provides rehabilitation for patients discharged from acute care services, is currently under construction. Additionally, an adolescent mental health unit is being built. The center for referral of complex cases from Shellharbour is Wollongong Hospital. The hospital receives students from the University of New South Wales, and in 2008, a formal agreement was signed with the University of Wollongong graduate medical school.

History

Shellharbour Hospital was opened in 1986 by Neville Wran, after many years of lobbying and at a cost of $20 million.