The department of General Medicine is one of the largest departments at The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH). The department has over 90 staff that include over 50 Senior Medical staff, 16 Junior Medical staff, allied health, administration and nursing staff.

Within the department sits the sub-specialty units of Infectious Diseases, Immunisation, Rheumatology, Immigrant Health and Clinical Pharmacology. Many staff within the department have appointments across the RCH campus in MCRI and the University of Melbourne. The department aims to provide the highest quality of care to our patients based on evidence. The department has an active education and teaching program and a strong academic research component. The department leads the working group that develops the clinical practice guidelines. Every term the department welcomes and mentors up to 20 medical students from the University of Melbourne.  

The inpatient service is provided by 18 consultants attached to four medical teams. Inpatient activity is amongst the highest of any unit at RCH with over 6500 admissions per year. The department provides leadership to and staffs the 24 bed short stay unit.  In addition the department has significant outpatient clinic  activity that include General Medicine, continence, upper airways, emergency review, chronic fatigue, immigrant health, infectious diseases, rheumatology, immunisation, dermatology.

Given the diversity and skill set of its clinical staff, the department is well placed and actively seeks opportunities to collaborate with other departments within the RCH to optimise and streamline the care we provide to our patients.