Mackay Hospital Education Centre

Mackay Base Hospital is a regional hospital with a significant undergraduate student presence on site and strong associations to James Cook University (JCU) and Central Queensland University (CQU) through their Rural Clinical School. Education is their core activity, aimed at ensuring the standard and quality of patient care and the future of the workforce across all disciplines required within the Hospital.

Education is provided by the Hospital in partnership with JCU to students of Medical, Nursing, Allied Health and Dentistry through JCU and CQU. The Hospital also provides further Postgraduate Medical Training through RMO, PHO and Registrar positions under the supervision of Mackay Base Hospital as the employing hospital.

An integrated Education Precinct comprising of the Mackay Hospital Education Centre and JCU incorporates areas that can be made available to JCU (i.e. Library). Capital efficiencies were achieved due to improved space utilisation and the ability to share technology infrastructure. Many hospitals around Australia are collocating Hospital and University Education and Research areas in close proximity to Clinical and Staff areas, strongly advocating Medical Education as a central platform in providing excellence in healthcare.

The MHEC is available to both staff and students and contains a flat floor lecture room, tutorial and meeting rooms, computer resources both individual and lab based, library facilities and student break-out space, along with open plan office space for Educators and Support areas. Attraction and retention of staff, undergraduates and postgraduate clinical staff is a strong central theme to both MHEC and JCU components. This area also includes provision for registrars in the Eastern aspect of the library.

To meet the short-term clinical needs of MBH, and to assist in the decanting process during redevelopment, this building was designed to accommodate the temporary requirements of Outpatients and Oncology. Key drivers of the Model of Care were incorporated into the temporary provision such as direct access at ground floor to accommodate ambulatory patient flow, easy of way finding, use of natural light and access to natural environment, clustering and privacy of consult rooms.