A NEW 73-bed mental health centre has opened at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
THE $67 million Professor Marie Bashir Centre is named after the former NSW governor.
The six-storey facility, officially opened on Wednesday, will receive its first patients next week. The centre features wall murals, a rooftop garden, barbecue and break out areas for patients, visitors and staff. It includes a short stay unit, an assessment unit, acute adult in-patient services, including the capacity to manage mothers and babies in a defined pod, a high dependency unit, and seven University of Sydney beds dedicated to research. Sydney Local Health District chief executive Teresa Anderson says there’s no one more appropriate to be named as patron than Professor Bashir. “She did her medical training at the University of Sydney in 1956, then worked within our hospitals in mental health for many years, becoming a champion and advocate for thousands of people across the system,” Dr Anderson said. “Her commitment to improving the lives of people living with a mental illness, her compassion, and her ability to make every person that she comes into contact with feel special and important is inspirational, and her legacy will continue in this centre.”