The Victoria Police Ribbon Foundation
doesn't just remember lives...

IT SAVES THEM!

The Blue Ribbon Foundation has been prudent in its selection of hospital projects. Our aim is to sponsor those projects that can provide the best possible treatment to the largest number of people. Careful selections by the Board have resulted in maximum utilisation of the monetary resources accumulated through fund raising and public donations.

The achievements in our communities through the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation have been impressive and have come about because people care. They care about their community, about their police men and women and about their fellow citizens.

The advantages of this work are many:

Living memorials sponsored in Victorian public hospitals by the Blue Ribbon Foundation will provide specialised treatment to over 85,000 Victorians in the coming year.

Many of these patients will receive life-saving surgery with equipment and procedures financed by the Foundation.

Better policing, improved health-care and life-saving treatments are fantastic achievements for the Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation. But our most important achievements of have been;

Appropriate memorials to members of the Victoria Police who have been killed in the line of duty.

A strengthening of the bonds that should exist between the community and their police force.

Constant awareness and appreciation for the role of our serving men and women of the Victoria Police.

And these achievements are just the beginning. The Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation is committed to future growth through the establishment of “living memorials” that benefit all Victorians.


The Tynan-Eyre Diagnostic Centre at the Alfred Hospital

This unit houses the hospital’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging system. Unlike other diagnostic processes, MRI provides doctors with more accurate images capable of detecting tumours as small as a pin head. Funding by the Blue Ribbon Foundation has enabled the hospital to purchase enhancements to the MRI to aid surgeons with pre-surgical computer imaging, simulations and the accurate diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.


The Tynan-Eyre Stereotactic Radiosurgery Unit at the Alfred Hospital

Funding from the Blue Ribbon Foundation enabled the purchase of equipment for this life-saving procedure that treats certain tumours normally considered to be inoperable. It uses images from the MRI to guide an intense beam of X-Rays at the tumour. Best of all, this procedure is non-evasive and is handled at an outpatient service.


The Tynan-Eyre Trauma Centre at Bendigo Hospital

Opened in April 1999, the Tynan-Eyre Trauma Centre is used to stabilise and treat critical patients in the State’s central and northern regions. Treatment can now be given locally whereas previously, critical patients would be rushed to Melbourne for treatment. Among the patients treated in this unit were four police officers shot during a siege at Kangaroo Flat just out of Bendigo. All four have made full recoveries and are back on duty.


The Silk-Miller Trauma Centre at Dandenong Hospital

The Blue Ribbon Foundation has provided $350,000 for the purchase of high-tech patient monitoring equipment. Every treatment cubicle in the Emergency Department and beds in the Trauma Centre have been equipped with the new equipment that enables medical staff to make quicker and more detailed assessments. Dandenong is Victoria’s busiest emergency hospital next to the Alfred.


The Tynan-Eyre Epilepsy Monitoring Ward at the Alfred Hospital

Epilepsy is a condition that affects many Victorians and has no age discrimination. Children are often born with epilepsy even though seizures don’t occur until later. Medication can control the disease but a surgical cure is often not possible. But the Epilepsy Monitoring Ward at the Alfred is using state of the art technology, and the resources of the MRI unit to provide patients with a selective, surgical cure for the disease. Funding by the Blue Ribbon Foundation has enabled the Ward to purchase the equipment necessary to selectively locate the brain area from which seizures emanate. In its first year of operation, surgeons were able to provide total cure to just over 80% of the patients attending the Ward. Their target is to provide a cure for more than 8,000 epilepsy sufferers in the years ahead thereby enabling them to live full and productive lives.


The Angela Taylor Intensive Care Bed at Royal Melbourne Hospital

When Constable Angela Taylor was injured in the Russell Street bombing in 1986, she spent 20 agonizing days in the Intensive Care Department of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Medical staff tendered to Angela’s injuries to no avail. As a token of gratitude for the care and compassion the hospital extended to Angela, her family and work colleagues, the Blue Ribbon Foundation funded the purchase of an intensive care bed. In addition, the Foundation wants to fund a more substantial medical facility at the Royal Melbourne as a permanent memorial to Constable Angela Taylor.


The Angela Taylor Child Protection Unit at Monash Medical Centre

This is the latest medical initiative to be sponsored by the Blue Ribbon Foundation. 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 has enabled the purchase of new equipment and will also allow for an expansion of the Unit’s size, the installation of a private entrance and better facilities for police members attending with victims.


The Stephen Henry Resuscitation and Grief & Counselling Rooms

The Stephen Henry Emergency Resuscitation Unit and Grief & Counselling Room were recently opened at Colac Hospital. Funds for these facilities were raised in the local community by the Colac Branch and with contributions from the Blue Ribbon Trust. Both rooms provide much needed medical treatment and counselling services in the newly developed Colac Hospital.


The Angela Taylor Intensive Care Room at Royal Melbourne Hospital

Opened in December 2003, this new facility 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.


The John McNally Emergency Department at Ararat Hospital

Sergeant John McNally was the first member of Victoria Police to be feloniously slain in the line of duty and in May 2004, a memorial was dedicated in his honour at the Ararat Hospital. In partnership with the Ararat Branch of the Blue Ribbon Foundation and the local community, the new emergency department can provide state of the art emergency & trauma care to the people of Ararat and the surrounding district. Further efforts are also being made to fund a helicopter landing facility adjacent to the Ararat Hospital.


The Norm Curson ICU/CCU Room at Bendigo Hospital

Opened in early October the new room provides a quiet and private place for families and loved ones who have patients in Intensive or Critical care at the hospital. It is fitted with comfortable furnishings, TV, DVD, Video and has its own kitchen area so that people can have refreshments and meals.


The John McNally Emergency Helicopter Landing Pad at Ararat Hospital

Dedicated in October 2006 it adjoins the already established John McNally emergency department at Ararat Hospital and now provides a first-response air-ambulance resource for the local community and surrounding district. Funded as a joint project in partnership with the Ararat Branch and Ararat Rural City the landing pad is state of the art and has been accepted as the standard for similar structures throughout Australia.


The Eyre/Tynan Emergency Department at Goulburn Valley Hospital, Shepparton

Goulburn Valley Health is the largest public health provider in the Hume region and the upgrading of the emergency department has provided a new ambulance bay, three additional emergency treatment areas and overall improvements to existing facilities as well as staff and public areas


The Ray Denman Short Stay Unit at Goulburn Valley Hospital, Shepparton

The Short Stay Unit is designed to receive and monitor patients for up to 48 hours who present with a range of symptoms that may not result in immediate diagnosis. It provides an intermediate area of patient care, which is fully staffed and monitored, providing medical staff with more flexibility to diagnose and treat patients or transfer them to other treatment areas including the adjoining emergency department if required.


The Tony Clarke Trauma Theatre at Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.

A very specialised surgical theatre dedicated for critically injured patients being admitted to the Alfred’s Trauma Centre. With operating suites constantly in use at the hospital this new facility provides immediate theatre facilities to trauma patients where minutes and seconds could mean the difference between life & death.


The Tynan-Eyre & Angela Taylor Trusts

Scholarship grants to more than 80 members of the Victoria Police to study specialised areas of law enforcement. Many of these study grants have enabled members to travel overseas to attend courses with some of the World’s leading law enforcement agencies. New techniques and skills are brought back and disseminated within the Victoria Police, which ultimately leads to improved policing for all Victorians.


Tynan-Eyre Secondary School Scholarships

To encourage excellence in young Victorians studying the VCE years 11 & 12, the Blue Ribbon Foundation offers two scholarships each year to Victorian students. Each grant provides financial assistance covering two years and are decided by the Education Victoria.


Victoria Police Academy Awards

The Blue Ribbon Foundation provides an awards to each squad graduating the Victoria Police Academy. They are:
- The Angela Taylor Acedemic Highest Achivere Award
- The Tynan-Eyre Communication Skills Highest Achiever Award
- The Blue Ribbon Foundation Physical Skills Highest Achiever Award

The awards are made to the recruits who display the highest standards in each of the disciplines and are aimed at encouraging new members of the Victoria Police to attain high standards of professionalism that should stay with them throughout their career with the Force.