St Vincents Private Hospitals

Mater Hospital opens new palliative care and day surgery centre

St Vincent’s is pleased to announced the opening of a new $42 million state-of-the-art palliative care facility and modernised day surgery centre at its Mater Hospital in Sydney’s Wollstonecraft. 

For the first time, the St Vincent’s Mater Hospital will provide a full suite of birth to end-of-life patient services with the new Ritchie Family Centre for Supportive and Palliative Care meeting the North Shore community's holistic supportive and palliative care needs.

With 12 beds, it’s estimated around 235 palliative care patients will use the new Centre every year. 

The Centre, which features a garden and consulting suites, will also serve as a research and teaching facility, advancing palliative care practices, including the increasing provision of care-in-the-home.

The second floor of the new wing will house an expanded day surgery unit, including an additional endoscopy suite. The Duncan Family Day Surgery Centre will enhance patient flow and experience and allow the Hospital to support medical procedures that are increasingly offered as day surgery admissions. 

The development has been enabled by the vision and generous philanthropic support from the Friends of the Mater Foundation, which committed $18.5 million to the project. This extraordinary contribution was made possible not only by the very significant philanthropy of the Ritchie, Duncan, and Van Norton-Poche families, but also by the many other Friends of the Mater donors whose generosity enabled the provision of specialised equipment, furniture, and a collection of Aboriginal artworks. 

St Vincent’s CEO, Chris Blake, said the exciting new centre was all about strengthening the St Vincent’s Mater’s health services for people living north of the bridge. 

“The St Vincent’s Mater Hospital is well-known for several key specialities: its maternity, cancer, orthopaedic, cardiac and surgical services, for example. But for many years, there has been a growing demand for a new palliative care service on Sydney’s North Shore,” said Chris.

“As an organisation, St Vincent’s has a long and rich history in end-of-life care. We established the first palliative care services in three states: NSW, Victoria and Queensland. It’s part of our DNA.

“It’s a privilege for us to now bring that expertise and know-how to the St Vincent’s Mater, thanks to the incredible generosity and effort of the Friends of the Mater Foundation, which has raised $85 million for the Hospital over the past 25 years.

“Our ambition is for the St Vincent’s Mater to meet the breadth of health needs of Sydneysiders living north of the bridge. Our focus is on strengthening the patient experience, and expanding safe, connected care beyond the hospital’s walls and into the community,” Chris said.

Chairman of Friends of the Mater, Dr Keith Hartman AM, said the development represented a significant step forward in the Mater's commitment to providing comprehensive care for patients throughout all stages of their lives. Combined, the two new centres – palliative care and day surgery – will see more than 5800 patients per year.

“The philosophy of the Sisters who founded the Mater 120 years ago, was that no one should die alone and we are fulfilling that mission,” Dr Hartman said.

The St Vincent’s Mater Hospital’s Director of Palliative Care Dr Wei Lee said the Ritchie Family Centre was unique in that it caters not only for people at end-of-life but to those with life-limiting illnesses needing complex symptom management while receiving both palliative and curative treatment at the same time. 

“As well as palliative care, we will provide supportive care, which is a comprehensive approach for people with cancer or chronic, life-limiting illnesses that optimises their quality of life by addressing complex physical symptoms as well as emotional, practical, and spiritual needs from diagnosis onwards.”

Medical Oncologist Professor Fran Boyle said the Ritchie Centre is the “last piece of the puzzle” in providing holistic care to cancer patients in particular.

“This place is amazing. We realised over time that a purpose-built unit was what we needed to provide for the needs of patients and their families, and it was possible, with the generosity of the donors, to bring that to life.”

The centres will be officially opened by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW and blessed by the Most Reverend Daniel Meagher DD VG EV, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney.