Information for media

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne’s (SVHM) Communication and Media team is the first point of contact for all media enquiries including condition updates, interview requests and permission to film onsite.

To contact SVHM’s Communication & Media team, please call 03 9231 2577 or call the SVHM Switchboard on 03 9231 2211 and ask to be put through to the media person on call.

Our media phone is monitored between 6am – 10pm, seven days a week. Calls made outside of these hours will not be received or responded to.

You can also email media requests to comms.melb@svha.org.au. This email is monitored between 8am – 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Patient condition updates

If you are enquiring about a patient condition, please provide appropriate details so we can identify the patient you are referring to. This can include:

Location of their injury (i.e. suburb or event)
Date and approximate time the injury happened
Condition the patient was brought to hospital in (stable, serious, critical) if known
Gender and approximate age

If our team is able to identify the patient for you, we will provide a condition update where possible. Condition descriptions are provided below.

Critical: the patient’s injury or illness is life threatening.
Serious: the patient’s injury or illness is currently not life threatening; however, they could deteriorate.
Stable: the patient’s injury or illness is not life threatening and they are not expected to deteriorate.
No longer in our care: the patient has left our hospital. This could mean they have been discharged home or transferred to another facility. SVHM will not confirm patient locations when they leave our care.
SVHM will not confirm or comment on patient deaths.

Due to patient privacy, we cannot confirm or provide any further patient details such as their name, age, injuries, location within the hospital or the treatment they are receiving.

Please note, the Communication and Media team relies on a patient's treating staff to provide condition updates and will not distract from them providing patient care to do so.

Interview requests

Patients and families

If you would like to interview SVHM patients or their families onsite, a request must be put through the Communications and Media team. Our patient’s treatment and care remains our priority and their treating team will determine if it is appropriate for them to take part in a media interview or to submit an interview request.

Staff

Our staff can provide expertise, insight and commentary across a wide range of specialties. If you would like to interview an SVHM staff member or request and SVHM spokesperson, please contact Communications and Media team.

Filming onsite

Any media filming onsite at SVHM must receive approval from SVHM’s Communication and Media team and, if approved, media must be escorted by a member of team at all times they are onsite.

Media are expected to follow all SVHM quality, safety, infection control and privacy policies.

Live crosses

Approval is not required to film outside SVHM property; however, if you are undertaking a live cross from a public area outside one of our sites, you can let the Communications and Media team know by phone or email.

Please be respectful of our patients’ and their families’ privacy when undertaking any filming, and ensure you are not impacting access to our facilities for patients, families, staff or ambulances.

Further questions

Please call SVHM’s Communication & Media team on 03 9231 2577 or email comms.melb@svha.org.au.