Preston and Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH)

Full description

Preston and Northcote Community Hospital (often referred to as PANCH) was opened by Premier, Sir Henry Bolte, on 3 July 1960. Prior to this the Preston Council approved the establishment of the hospital in May 1941 and a hospital committee was set up in June 1942.

The hospital provided a wide range of services including midwifery, pathology, surgery, medical plastic surgery, a children's ward, dental surgery, casualty ward, outpatients' clinic, radiology, pharmacy and physiotherapy.

In February 1995 the Victorian Government established a Hospitals Planning Board to evaluate metropolitan health services. Out of this came the recommendation to join individually run hospitals into amalgamated health networks. This also included the establishment of a new hospital at Epping to accommodate the surge in population in the outer suburbs. This involved a scaling down of services at PANCH and a complete transfer of PANCH staff to the new Northern Hospital at Epping as of February 1998.