Armidale Hospital

Armidale Rural Referral Hospital is a 99 bed rural referral hospital within the Hunter New England Local Health District. It is the referral centre for the Northern Tablelands for non-tertiary care to NSW. The Hospital provides acute health care services to residents of Armidale and surrounding towns: Uralla, Kentucky, Wollomombi & Hillgrove. The Hospital is also a referral centre for hospitals in Guyra, Glen Innes, Inverell, Emmaville and Tenterfield to the north and Walcha to the south. The nearest referral hospital is Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital, 110 kms south.

Accommodation is provided for services in general medicine, surgery, day surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatric, rehabilitation, anaesthetics, intensive care, and emergency. Also on-site are renal dialysis (limited care), oncology, palliative care, radiology, pharmacy, pre-admission clinic, pain clinic, colposcopy clinic, orthopaedic/fracture clinic, stress testing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, and patient transport service. 

Armidale also shares an on-call area orthopaedic service with Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital. Hospital services are supported by a rehabilitation gymnasium, hydrotherapy pool, quiet room, staff and relative accommodation (Rusden House), library, hospital chapel, hospital auxiliary kiosk and trolley service, staff cafeteria, and seminar rooms. A Red Cross Blood Bank, dental service, pathology service, mental health inpatient service (Clarke Centre), community health service, and private hospital are also located on the site but are managed separately.

Paediatric Services provided 

The Paediatric Unit has 8 beds with over 700 admissions per year. Outreach clinics are provided locally from John Hunter Children's Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital for Oncology, Diabetes and Respiratory. The Hospital provides a Level 4 child protection and sexual assault service. One of the local Paediatricians provides outreach clinics in Glen Innes, Inverell and Moree as well as at the local Narwan Aboriginal Centre.

In this region the Child, Young Person and Family Service consists of Child and Family Health Nursing Services (including Families NSW and Parenting Education), Genetic Counselling from Tamworth, PANOC Child Protection Counselling, Child, Adolescent and Family Counselling (Psychologists, Social Worker and Welfare Officer), Speech Pathology Services, Community Midwife (Pregnancy Care Program-Aboriginal and Maternal Infant Health Strategy), Paediatric Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy services. Audiometry Services and Immunisation Services are provided by community nurses working in collaboration with the paediatric staff from Child and Family. 

These professionals provide a variety of child and family health services (including assessment, therapy and counselling) to children, adolescents (aged 0-18 years) and their families who live in the Armidale, Uralla and Guyra areas.

When do we refer to another facility? 

Referrals to John Hunter Children's Hospital and the Sydney Children's Hospital Network (Randwick and Westmead) may occur in a number of situations.

This includes children requiring surgery from ages 0-2.

Non urgent referral to Subspecialty Clinics will occur whenever one of the local Paediatricians requires a more specialised opinion.  Our close relationships with our colleagues at John Hunter Children's Hospital in particular, make these referrals efficient and valuable.  We would usually continue to be responsible for their General Paediatric care.

Children who are admitted to Armidale Rural Referral Hospital or neonates who are born here, but require intensive care or immediate subspecialist care are transferred to a tertiary centre by NETS (Neonatal Emergency Transport Service) or other means. Our Children's Ward and Special Care Nursery are equipped to stabilise these children and act as High Dependency Units, whilst transfer is arranged. This includes the use of bubble cpap.

Hours of operation

Armidale Rural Referral Hospital operates 24 hours a day, 365 day a year providing Emergency and Inpatient services. Outpatient and Administration services operate from 8:00am - 5:00pm weekdays. 

Location and contact details