Cairns Health & Innovation Centre
FNQ Health and Innovation Precinct
The Far North Queensland region encompasses some of the most remote communities in the state. Cairns Hospital is the only major referral hospital in FNQ, providing care to patients from Cape York, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Torres Strait. With a population experiencing increasingly complex, chronic conditions above national averages, expanded health services, clinical research, and education are critical to meet the ongoing health needs of FNQ’s growing population while also supporting the current and expanding visitor population of close to three million people per year.
Our region’s Hospital and Health Services (Cairns and Hinterland, Torres and Cape, North West), supported by the Northern Queensland Primary Healthcare Network, James Cook University (JCU), CQUniversity, TAFE Queensland and other tertiary institutions, work together to ensure that Cairns grows its own medical, nursing and allied health workforce to expand clinical services and translate research into practice to improve health outcomes for FNQ communities.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service in partnership with JCU have made a significant investment in developing the Far North Queensland Health and Innovation Precinct (FNQHIP). The Precinct, centrally located in Cairns, will be the epicentre of health, education and training facilities enabling clinical and translational research, health service innovation and application of best evidence in health care, supporting Cairns Hospital’s transition to tertiary hospital status within the next five years.
The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) must support a growing population whose demand for healthcare services consistently outstrips population growth. The CHHHS annual report for 2022-2023 highlighted that Cairns Hospital supports an estimated resident population of 289,000, including the regular provision of acute medical services for residents of the Cape and Torres region, an area larger than Victoria[i]. This is in addition to catering for the region’s tourist population of close to three million for 2023. Cairns Hospital continues to see increased demand on its Emergency Department with more than 88,000 presentations to the Cairns Hospital Emergency Department alone in 2022, a 2.2% increase on 2021.
Combined with an estimated population growth of 2.13% (compound annual growth rate) per annum and an ageing population, it is estimated that by 2032 an additional 67,000 people will reside in the catchment area with more than one in five residents aged over 60 – a third more than the national average[ii].
The Cairns Health and Innovation Centre (CHIC) provides a platform for the Far North to substantially boost the health capability of the region which directly will result in significant improvements in the health outcomes of Far North Queensland residents as well as visitor population. The investment into the Innovation Centre underpins a significant opportunity to bring in international universities, researchers and a workforce that would benefit the region and indeed the nation.
Expanded health services, clinical research and education are critical to meeting the needs of FNQ’s large and growing population. Cairns Hospital faces a number of sustainability challenges, including:
• Short- and long-term infrastructure capacity – Cairns Hospital is now at capacity across all bed types with no hospital bypass option. By 2036-37, this gap is predicted to be more than 360 beds. Capacity is a critical risk and immediate planning is needed for a new acute clinical services building to ensure sustainable health service delivery for the medium term.
• Site constraints and resilience – Cairns Hospital is the smallest block of developable land for comparable hospitals, and the waterfront location creates service continuity risk (through flooding and storm surge exacerbated by climate change).
• Workforce and innovation – Innovation, continuing education and translational research is the key to attracting and retaining the appropriately skilled workforce that is required to meet the growing health demands of the Far North.
Discussions are underway between the CHHHS and JCU about joint master planning the Cairns precinct site to ensure a capitalisation of enhancing the health, research and education possibilities that will not only provide significant advantages to the health workforce, the community and their health outcomes, but also create meaningfully more jobs in the data sciences, robotics, innovation and engineering disciplines boosting FNQ’s reputation for translational research.
The uniqueness of FNQ’s environment means the Innovation Centre will focus on drawing on the Far North’s natural assets, partnerships with First Nations, domestic and international partners with a desire to make generational improvements to the health and wellbeing of all Australians. The proposition of the CHIC allows an expansion of the health and research precinct and will deliver material economic benefits that include job creation, tourism, increased international partnerships and linkages including with some elite level international universities. This will in turn benefit the health sector through incorporating innovative models of care and technology that will remove the volatility of the current workforce shortage felt in the health sector, and particularly in FNQ. The Innovation Centre investment will bring benefits across multi-sectors including travel and tourism, retail and housing development. Securing the knowledge economy in the Far North ensures the resilience of the region and is complementary to the tourism and agricultural sectors which will also benefit from the multi-disciplinary mix of research and development specialties.
The CHIC is fundamental in achieving Cairns Hospital’s transition to a tertiary hospital, enabling it to deliver world-class, high-quality care to address the critical current and future health challenges facing FNQ. This will result in more complex medical and surgical services, with more skilled and highly trained clinicians servicing a growing population which includes a population from the Cape and Torres Strait living with material health and wellbeing deficits, as well as serving a growing international and domestic tourism population. The region is forecast to attract close to four million visitors in 2032, placing further demands on the health service, extending beyond the resident population.
To ensure a successful transition, a significant expansion of bed capacity and selected specialty services is required over coming years, such as high specialty needs for older persons, paediatrics, adolescent mental health and other medical and surgical specialties. This will also include new expanded clinical and professorial roles. This will be delivered through strong national and international partnerships, the right infrastructure, and expanded provision of safe and sustainable clinical services for FNQ.
Benefits to the region
• Increased service capacity, ensuring equitable access across FNQ.
• Multinational research and education partnerships.
• Capacity to capitalise on global tropical medicine and rural generalist niche.
• Attract and retain skilled clinicians, researchers and innovators.
• Improve First Nations People health and wellbeing.
• Increased climate resilience.
• Improved health and wellbeing outcomes for Queenslanders.
• Growing the regions knowledge economy and ensuring the economic resilience of the Far North.
Recommendation
The Queensland Government commits to capital funding of about $250m for the detailed design and construction of the Cairns Health and Innovation Centre as per the detailed business case findings and supports the establishment of a research and education precinct to boost the economic resilience of the Far North.
Status
| Project name | Project details | Funding | Status |
| Phase 1 (2022-2026) Cairns Hospital Expansion Project (CHEP) |
• Relocate subacute care offsite to free up capacity for acute services at Cairns Hospital (by June 2023) • Develop the Cairns Surgical Centre to enable increased surgical capacity and to increase bed capacity at Cairns Hospital for additional acute care beds |
Funded: Queensland Government $250 million |
Early refurbishment works underway. |
| Phase 1 (2022-2026) Cairns Health and Innovation Centre (CHIC) Initial funding committed |
• Invest in construction of new Health and Innovation Centre • Deliver new, innovative care models – virtual health, ambulatory care, clinical trials (reducing bed pressures at Cairns Hospital) • Facilitate the partnering of third party domestic and international investors to develop a Far North Innovation, Research and Education precinct |
Initial funding committed: Queensland Government $60 million |
Detailed business case complete. Master planning and market sounding underway. |
| Phase 2 (2022 – 2036+) New Acute Services Building Pending planning and funding commitment |
• Invest in an expanded hospital footprint to meet projected services demand • New Acute Services Building to meet critical care needs – expanded emergency dept, theatres, ICU, wards and helipad • Expanded sub-acute services • Cairns Hospital completes its transition into a full tertiary level hospital (2030) |
Pending planning and funding commitment |
The creation of the Cairns Health and Innovation Centre at Cairns Hospital will be a key part of developing the Cairns Health and Innovation Precinct.
It will enable partnering not only with universities, but also research institutions, private sector partners and communities, to ensure the best minds are applied to solving the unique health issues of Far North Queensland.
We are commissioning a master plan for the Cairns health precinct to ensure we plan for and future proof our developments as part of the pathway for the health service to take Cairns Hospital to a tertiary level.
At the end of the day, this will help us attract some of the best minds and investment to tackle some of our biggest health challenges and translate this into providing the best care possible to our patients through the generations.
Advocacy
Images:
1-2. Courtest of Cairns and Hinterland Health and Hospital Services