Western Health manages four acute public hospitals: Sunshine Hospital (including Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s), Footscray Hospital, Williamstown Hospital and Bacchus Marsh Hospital. We also operate Sunbury Day Hospital, Melton Health and Community Services, Bacchus Marsh Community Health Centre, Caroline Springs Community Health Centre and Grant Lodge Residential Aged Care in Bacchus Marsh.
Western Health provides a comprehensive, integrated range of clinical services from our various sites ranging from mental health and wellbeing services, and acute tertiary services in areas of emergency medicine, intensive care, medical and surgical services, through to subacute care and onsite and virtual ambulatory clinics. Our specialised services include oncology, renal, women’s health including maternity, chronic disease, geriatrics and cardiology.
We provide a combination of hospital, community-based and in-reach services to aged, adult and paediatric patients and newborn babies. Western Health also provides the primary health care service at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, and offers drug health and addiction medicine support through our inpatient service and community Drug Health Service.
Employing more than 11,000 staff, Western Health has a strong philosophy of working with our local community to deliver excellence in patient care.
Our communities
Western Health is the major healthcare provider to one of the fastest growing and most diverse regions of Australia. The catchment population is nearing 900,000 and the birth rate and movement into this region means that strong growth will continue in the years ahead.
Our communities are culturally rich, with members speaking more than 150 different languages and dialects.
Our population has higher-than-average rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke and mental illness, and diabetes and depression are also significant population health issues. And our community is ageing, with frailty becoming a significant challenge to independent, healthy living.
We are committed to providing Best Care to communities across Melbourne’s west, improving health outcomes for all.
Our Values
Compassion - consistently acting with empathy and integrity.
Accountability - taking responsibility for our decisions and actions.
Respect - for the rights, beliefs and choice of every individual.
Excellence - inspiring and motivating innovation and achievement.
Safety - prioritising safety as an essential part of everyday practice.
Western Health acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our sites stand, the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung, Boon Wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the greater Kulin Nation. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
We are committed to the healing of country, working towards equity in health outcomes, and the ongoing journey of reconciliation.
Western Health is committed to respectfully listening and learning from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and wholeheartedly supports their journey to self-determination.
Closing the Gap
Western Health is committed to achieving equality in health status between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-indigenous Australians
Western Health has reaffirmed its commitment to improving the health of Indigenous Australians residing in the Western suburbs after becoming an official signatory to the national Closing the Gap campaign.
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Western Health INSPIRE Awards
The Western Health INSPIRE Awards recognise employees and volunteers, individuals and teams, whose actions inspire others to live our values.
They offer you another way of saying thank you to someone who has made a difference to your day or to the experience of patients or others.
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The People's Hospital - Tales from the surgeon's table
The People's Hospital – Tales from the surgeon's table, is the culmination of more than a year of work investigating and piecing together the fascinating stories that lie behind Footscray Hospital as we know it today.
These fascinating stories have been combined in the book and also on the accompanying website for you to explore.
Explore stories on the website that have been developed in conjunction with the book or you can purchase the book via the website.