Media enquiries for any hospital or service within Sydney Children's Hospitals Network are managed by the Communications and Engagement Directorate. This includes Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, The Children's Hospital at Westmead; and specialised services, Bear Cottage, Children's Court Clinic, NSW Poisons Information Centre and the Newborn and paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS).

The Communications and Engagement team will only respond to enquiries from recognised media and news outlets with established frameworks to report on matters in an accurate, impartial and balanced manner and with established mechanisms in place to address any incorrect reporting. This is to ensure any health-related information presented to the public, through media or otherwise, is factual and not misleading. 

Patient condition reports

• Are only released once consent has been obtained from a patient’s parent or legal guardian.
• Patient care takes priority over the provision of condition reports which are not issued without the permission of the treating team.

• Are available from 

  • 6am-9am and 5pm-10pm weekdays and
  • 6am-10pm on weekends

  to minimise disruption to patients and families.

 ​​​Urgent after hours media enquiries

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network provides a seven day a week media service to ensure all necessary information, including patient condition reports, priority community health issues and emergencies, are communicated effectively to the community.

The after-hours ‘on call’ media service is for urgent media enquiries only. In the event of an emergency, the on call service may be extended.

• Call us on (02) 9382 1111 or (02) 7825 0000 and ask for the Media Officer on call.

Non-urgent enquiries can be directed to the relevant Communications and Engagement office during business hours.