The Blue Ribbon Foundation donated $150,000 to the new Intensive Care Unit at RHM. The funding was for one of the Critical Care Staff Stations within the ICU. The new design of the ICU has a number of these stations, each assigned to care for a limited number of patients.

From the station clinical staff are able to monitor every aspect of their patient’s vital signs, condition and treatment regime. They are also equipped with state of the art communications, additional emergency equipment and all the supplies they need to care for their patients.

In looking for the most appropriate way for the Blue Ribbon Foundation to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Russell Street Bombing and the death of Constable Angela Taylor we chose to assist with funding for the most modern ICU in Australia thereby providing a valuable service to the people of Victoria and continuing Angela Taylor’s Service to the community.

Opened in December 2003, this facility, named in memory of Constable Angela Taylor, provides very specialised treatment and care for extremely critical patients within the ICU at Royal Melbourne Hospital. With its state of the art equipment, it is one of the most advanced ICU rooms in Australia and allows for better medical treatment with a minimum level of movement and disruption to the patient. The room also accommodates immediate family members and loved-ones so they can remain close to the patient and maintain a level of privacy and dignity.

Constable Angela Rose Taylor was killed in April 1986 when a car bomb exploded outside the Russell Street Police Complex. She sustained extensive burns and other injuries in the explosion and died from those injuries 24 days later. Constable Taylor was the first police women in Australia to be feloniously slain in the line of duty.

When Constable Angela Taylor was injured in the Russell Street bombing in 1986, she spent 24 agonizing days in the Intensive Care Department of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Medical staff fought to save Angela’s life but to no avail. As a token of gratitude for the care and compassion the hospital extended to Angela, her family, work colleagues and the Blue Ribbon Foundation funded the purchase of an intensive care bed.

Constable Angela Taylor was a youthful, energetic police officer who loved working with children so it was fitting that the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation and Southern Health named this expanded unit in her memory. This Unit provides medicals, counselling and treatment to child victims of physical and sexual abuse and is one of only two such units servicing Victoria. Funding from the Blue Ribbon Foundation enabled the purchase of new equipment and allowed for an expansion of the Unit’s size including the installation of a private entrance. A very significant part of the expansion was a dedicated police office that allows police members to conduct interviews and investigations in private thereby ensuring that appropriate protocols can be managed onsite.

Since its initial opening the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation has provided additional funding so that other necessary equipment could be purchased.