The Paediatric and Adolescent Unit at Ballarat Health Services is a 20-bed unit which offers specialist care for children and adolescents up to 18 years of age.

The staff are committed to family centred, individualised care which empowers and encourages the involvement of family members in their child's treatment and care.

Paediatric and Adolescent services at Ballarat Health Services are extensive with most medical and many surgical conditions expertly managed locally.

With up to 800 presentations of children per month to the Emergency Department, the unit admits approximately 200 children and adolescents per month. Extensive community care services compliment their inpatient care on discharge.

The unit is staffed 24 hours a day by a highly dedicated team of paediatric nurses, consultant paediatricians and hospital medical officers. Paediatric allied health staff including a social worker, dietician, speech pathologist, physiotherapist and members of the Infant and Child as well as Adolescent Mental Health services and members of the Perinatal Emotional Help Program compliment the dedicated team.

For further information about Paediatric and Adolescent Services please telephone (03) 5320 4301.

Inside the Unit

Situated on second floor of the Base Hospital, the unit is child friendly, thoughtfully decorated and equipped to be welcoming and safe for children who require treatment and care.

The 20-cot and bed unit has four single rooms, two three-bed rooms, one four-bed rooms and a Same Day Unit model comprising a 6 cot, recliner and trolley configuration depending on daily requirements.

A single room has been designed as a Family Centred Room which accommodates the entire family in a vibrant, spacious and relaxed setting and includes an ensuite.

A parent is encouraged to stay overnight with their child while in hospital and Ballarat Health Services will provide a futon bed/chair and linen for you to stay beside your child.

There is an additional sleeping room adjacent to the unit for further parent accommodation.

Parents and visitors wellbeing is acknowledged by the unit providing them with their own room to help themselves to free coffee, tea and toast.

The unit has a multi-purpose room where children can play on Wii entertainment or watch movies on the large LCD television. The comfortable couches lend themselves to a relaxing area for patients, family and friends for some time out. The room is used for family meetings with nurses, doctors and allied health staff. Additionally the room can accommodate relatives for an overnight stay.

Visiting hours

11am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 8pm.

Parents are encouraged to visit/stay with their child for the entire time of their child's hospitalisation.

Paediatric clinics

The Paediatric Clinic is on each Tuesday morning on Level two of the Base Hospital. Children are seen by a paediatrician, the paediatric registrar or resident and a paediatric nurse. There is also a registrar run clinic on Monday.

Also available is a Shared Care Oncology clinic run in collaboration with the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. A medical practitioner from the RCH visits Ballarat to offer outpatient services to children and adolescents from the Grampians region receiving oncology and haematology treatment, shared between the RCH and Ballarat Health Services.

In partnership with the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (VPRS) and the Paediatric and Adolescent Unit, children accessing VPRS services now receive Botilium Toxin (Botox) injecting treatment on the Paediatric and Adolescent unit, held monthly.