The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

The Alfred was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1871 and is a Monash University teaching hospital. The Alfred is the busiest trauma centre in Australasia and has one of the largest and most advanced intensive care units in the region. As a major tertiary-referral hospital, it provides one of the most comprehensive ranges of specialist acute health and mental health services in Victoria. The Alfred is the designated surgical state-wide provider of major trauma, burns, heart and lung replacement and transplantation and hyperbaric medicine. In addition, the hospital offers statewide elective surgical services through The Alfred Centre, providing short-stay elective surgery, diagnostic procedures and other planned services for public hospital patients throughout Victoria (http://www.alfred.org.au).

The Alfred is a recognised world leader in trauma and critical care and has successfully developed and delivered international, interdisciplinary trauma training programs, linked to infrastructure capacity building and data monitoring. Specifically, The Alfred Trauma Service has assisted in the establishment of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine in India and Sri Lanka, served as a model for the establishment of the United Kingdom Trauma System and established the first Trauma Centres in Sri Lanka and Southern China. In addition, it has supported the training of several thousand medical and nursing staff in trauma reception and resuscitation in China (including Hong Kong), India, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, The Philippines and Vietnam and facilitated the establishment of trauma registries to analyse care and measure the impact of interventions.