Responding to a growing demand for quality paediatric hospital care in Perth, in 2008 the West Australian Government announced a new hospital would be built to replace the existing Princess Margaret Hospital for Children which had reached its end of life and was in dire need of replacement. Perth Children’s Hospital, completed in 2018, now has the capacity to take more patients while providing more individualised care. Compared to Princess Margaret Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital offers an increase in single bed rooms from 65 to 225, including 31 isolation rooms, and an increase in theatre rooms from six to 12 multi-use theatres. It also features a larger emergency department.

DMA was engaged as an advisor to the state of Western Australia. We were responsible for developing the electrical services section of the site technical brief which included considerations for the 11kV mains connection, power factor correction, vertical distribution of power and similar infrastructure requirements. In addition, precise medical services advice was included in the technical brief.

There were many unique requirements for the design of this building, for example building an indoor swimming pool within the facility which required specialist earthing requirements as advised by DMA. Furthermore, the use of advanced Electroencephalography (EEG) equipment meant the test rooms did not have to be electrically or magnetically shielded. We took all requirements on board and developed an all-encompassing electrical services plan for the new hospital.

The DMA teams’ collective experience of working on key projects such as the Gold Coast University Hospital and the Townsville Hospital redevelopment provided a strong foundation for our the work on the Perth Children’s Hospital project. This past experience meant our recommendations were tried, tested and aligned with modern hospital requirements. The Perth Children’s Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility and the successful outcome can be attributed to the high standards that were implemented by the Western Australian state team.