The Children's Hospital at Westmead Stage 2 Redevelopment

The new Paediatric Services Building will include a new clinical building and multi-storey car park to serve the existing and expanded Children’s Hospital. This growth of children's health services in Western Sydney will make sure that young people continue to receive safe, high quality care that helps them live their healthiest lives.

The new Paediatric Services Building will provide new and expanded critical care and acute healthcare services, including:

• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
• Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
• cancer services
• operating theatres
• cardiac catheterisation and interventional laboratories
• pharmacy
• additional inpatient units.

In addition, the new hospital building will include the Kookaburra Centre, the first of its kind in Australia, which will provide care for children with complex health conditions. This centre is being delivered in partnership with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

The new Paediatric Services Building will connect with the new Emergency Department, medical imaging and short stay unit delivered through Stage 1 of the redevelopment.

A new multi-storey car park opened in 2024 to provide additional parking to address the growth in healthcare services, and replace parking lost in freeing-up the site for the project. 

Construction of the new Paediatric Services Building begun in 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2025.

The new multi-storey car park for The Children’s Hospital at Westmead will provide more than 1000 parking spaces to meet the hospital’s current and future parking needs.

Conveniently located off Redbank Road, the new car park will have an attractive architectural façade, easy parking for vehicles and bikes, and the potential for a future coffee cart and artworks to create a lively atmosphere as you enter the hospital.

The site was selected because of its convenient location close to the hospital staff and Galleria entries. The site also meets our requirements for long-term precinct planning.

The new car park opened in June 2024.

About the car park

• The new car park has more than 1000 spaces.
• The car park also includes 75 electric vehicle charging stations available, with future proofing for 200 in total.
• The solar panels on both the facade and roof of the car park can generate more than 700kW of renewable energy.  
• Mobility parking for staff and visitors is a priority – the best strategy for mobility parking (including disabled parking) will be developed in consultation with our staff and families.

The project includes new landscaping, pathways and playground improvements. 

For staff 

• The new car park will mean an end to interim parking arrangements for staff.
• There will be no need to walk or bus from the rear of the campus.
• The new car park also replaces parking spaces lost to redevelopment (including P17), plus extra spaces for current and future parking needs. 

Playground relocation 

• The existing George Gregan playground at the back of the hospital has closed with a temporary playground installed.
• Elements of the existing playground was transferred.
• A new playground has been created as part of the car park development, and will include equipment for a range of age groups and abilities.
• The playground design was planned with the help of staff, family representatives, and playground designers. 

The big picture 

• Our transport plan includes parking to meet the current and future needs of the hospitals, and replace parking areas which are needed for redevelopment.
• But in the future, we need to reduce reliance on cars whenever possible, and promote opportunities to walk and cycle, or use bus, train, Parramatta Light Rail and the future Sydney West Metro.
• Precinct planning will focus on creating a new civic heart for Westmead, with a walkable, well-connected and accessible health and education precinct, and a revitalised, high amenity living and employment centre.

The main entrance to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead has been transformed, with a revitalised forecourt called ‘KidsPark’, as part of the $659.1 million redevelopment.

KidsPark provides a vibrant green and open space for staff, patients and their families. It features retail offerings including a grocer with fresh produce, a ‘Village Green,’ an Aboriginal Meeting Place and a playground for children of all ages and abilities. At the entrance of the hospital, the Aboriginal Meeting Place provides a safe and welcoming space for First Nations people to connect.

This space includes culturally appropriate design features, artwork and an Aboriginal garden with native plants. Through collaboration with the local Aboriginal community, the new space will also give non Aboriginal community members the opportunity to learn and experience local Aboriginal culture.

The ‘Village Green’ within KidsPark provides an interactive green, open space for people to relax and connect, with additional seating and shade surrounded by native flora.

The new space will allow people to connect, socialise and have fun outdoors - promoting community well-being. In addition, a new playground is being installed in the forecourt featuring a range of contemporary play equipment for children of all ages and abilities to enjoy.

The works started in 2023 and were completed in late 2024.

As part the redevelopment, a number of existing areas of the hospital were refurbished to enhance spaces for patients, staff and visitors, improve connectivity and to meet future clinical demands.

Refurbishments within the existing hospital building took place over Levels 1, 2 and 3 and include:

• Pathology – this includes expansion of laboratories in the balcony space; relocation of Pathology Collections to the front of the hospital in the former ED, and fit-out of the new Central Specimen Reception Area and blood bank.
• Relocating Gait Lab to Level 1 within the existing Function Room and a portion of the Dining Room space, and associated reconfiguration of the staff dining room.
• Relocating the Clinical Research Centre to the former ED to enable the breakthrough of level 2 of the KR building to make way for the future pathway from the KIDSPARK forecourt into the new PSB.
• Widening of the Level 3 Linkway between Block K and CHW to improve the capacity for staff and patient flows across all buildings.
• Galleria upgrade works – including new airlocks and a new staircase to link Level 1 directly into the Galleria on Level 2.

Kane Constructions was awarded the contract with works beginning in 2023 and completed in May 2025

In addition, construction of the new Viral Vector Manufacturing Facility Stage 2 is being carried out concurrently with the refurbishment works.

During this time, we remind our local hospital community to follow staff direction and signage while work is being carried out.

Australia's first paediatric-specific virtual healthcare service, virtualKIDS, has a new home at the Virtual Care Centre or "Kids HQ: Command Centre for Kids".

Virtual care, which includes telehealth, safely connects patients with health professionals to deliver care when and where it is needed by offering a range of services via phone, video conferencing or remote monitoring, and allows clinical information to be stored or sent electronically.

Virtual Care Centres (VCC), make it simpler and easier for patients and carers in remote and rural areas to connect to their clinicians, and enable shared care with local services.

The first VCC located at Westmead, was completed in late 2021. It replaced the temporary facility in the old Emergency Department, and is the first clinical building project in The Children's Hospital at Westmead Stage 2 Redevelopment.

Westmead's Virtual Care Centre will service the whole network for the time being, however, a Virtual Care Centre will also be delivered at Randwick as part of the SCH Stage 1 /CCCC redevelopment with targeted completion in 2025.

The virtual care centres will be a co-located space between a number of departments including virtualKIDS, Kids GPS, Integrated Care, facilitate SCHN’s Disaster Response and coordination of Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) activities, and support broader hospital operations, providing workspaces for patient flow, after hours nurse managers, bed manager, and nurse staffing.

Consultation and design

Staff were closely involved in every aspect of the design. During the planning and design phase, the Project User Group, completed multiple rounds of consultation, producing floor plans, room layout and data sheets.

Project user group members, project partners and architects visited showrooms to select the style of workstations, technology options and interior designs to support the new virtual care centre clinical care pods. 

The new building is due to open in 2026.

Stage 1 was part of the new Block K (Central Acute Services Building) at Westmead. It included:

• Emergency Department (ED)
• Children’s Short Stay Unit (CSSU)
• Additional Medical Imaging and pharmacy departments (to service the ED and Children's Short Stay Unit
• Additional digital operating theatres.
• The children’s departments are on the street level (level 2) and provide fast-tracked service to ensure patients are treated quickly and safely in an environment that has been built for the future.