Cairns Base Hospital
Cairns Base Hospital provides community and specialist hospital services for Cairns and its immediate surroundings and is the major referral centre for Tropical North Queensland. Services include all major health specialties (medicine, surgery, women’s health, paediatrics and mental health) and more than 30 sub-specialties. The hospital also is a major provider of outreach specialist services to remote and rural areas, including obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthetics, orthopaedics, general medicine, renal medicine diabetes and thoracic medicine. The hospital has around 330 overnight beds.
In June 2002, a seven-year $130 million redevelopment program was completed at Cairns Base Hospital, substantially upgrading the health facilities and services available for Far Northerners.
The current $446 million Cairns Base Hospital redevelopment will result in a bigger and better hospital for the region, with an additional 168 beds by 2014.
In 2008, the Cairns Base Hospital Emergency Department treated 42,891 patients, compared with 39,460 patients in 2007. Patients presenting at emergency are given a triage rating based on the national triage scale:
Cairns Base Hospital’s Emergency Department generally meets these national benchmarks for the most urgent category. 100% of Category 1 patients are seen immediately. The national target for Category 2 is 80%; and currently around 79.6% are seen on time.
Patients requiring elective surgery are categorised by the consultant at the public health care facility. For category 1 patients (with a condition that has the potential to deteriorate quickly, to the point that it may become an emergency), admission within 30 days is desirable. As at January 1, 2009, 61 category 1 patients at Cairns Base Hospital (56% of the total) had waited longer than this. For category 2 patients (with a condition causing some pain, dysfunction or disability, but which is not likely to deteriorate quickly or become an emergency) admission within 90 days is desirable. As at January 1, 2009, 269 patients (35%) on this list had waited longer. More information on elective surgery waiting lists can be found on the Queensland Health web site
In 2008, there were:
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