Cairns Hospital Acute Services Building

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 which creates demand for healthcare services consistently outstripping population growth. The CHHHS annual report for 2023-2024 highlighted that the Cairns Hospital supports an estimated resident population of 289,823, including the regular provision of acute medical services for residents of the Cape and Torres region, an area larger than Victoria[i]. Cairns Hospital continues to see increased demand on its Emergency Department with more than 90,000 presentations to the Cairns Hospital Emergency Department alone in 2022-23, a 5.1% increase on 2021-22[ii].

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[iii].

With Phase 1 of Cairns Hospital’s redevelopment underway, the delivery of a new acute clinical services building in Phase 2 now becomes paramount. The requirement for a new Acute Services Building (ASB) is driven by three core elements:

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. As of 2024, the final 16 beds available at the Cairns Private Hospital are now in use by CHHHS. Capacity is now a critical risk and immediate planning for a new ASB is required to ensure sustainable health service delivery for the medium term.

Resilience: Cairns Hospital is the smallest block of developable land for comparable hospitals, and the waterfront location creates a significant service continuity risk (through flooding and storm surge exacerbated by climate change). This vulnerability was highlighted during the flooding in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper, requiring CHHHS to prepare for possible patient relocation. A new ASB would significantly enhance resilience allowing for the relocation of vital infrastructure including the emergency theatres, emergency department, medical imaging department and pharmacy, all of which are currently located on the ground floor of the hospital. Relocation of this infrastructure would also increase the hospital’s bed footprint, by repurposing the existing clinical floors within the hospital to expand outpatients, increase medical and surgical beds and enable the creation of a specialised paediatric in-patient and outpatient section. Furthermore, a new ASB would also see the relocation and construction of a new helipad on the ASB roof, from its current location on the heavily pedestrianised Esplanade foreshore. Not only would a rooftop helipad provide patients with the safest and most direct route to the Emergency Department and operating theatres via lift, but it would provide a long-term solution to the current Esplanade Helipad, which was erected in 1999 as a temporary solution for Cairns Hospital’s requirements.

Tertiary level transition: A commitment towards the ASB would expand the hospital footprint, and enhance research and education, ultimately facilitating the delivery of more complex medical and surgical services required to improve health service delivery and ultimately achieve tertiary level status. The ASB is crucial to ensuring a successful transition, providing expanded bed capacity and selected specialty services 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.

A commitment to delivering Phase 2 is now vital to ensure Cairns Hospital completes its transition into a full tertiary level hospital by 2030.

Benefits to the region

Increased service capacity, ensuring equitable access to health services across FNQ
Multinational research and education partnerships
Capacity to capitalise on global tropical medicine and rural generalist specialisation
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 the delivery of a new Cairns Hospital Acute Services Building; and

Supports this with a commitment of $6m to fund a business case into the new Acute Services Building, enabling Cairns Hospital to meet the unprecedented health service demand now and into the future.

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 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

 [i] The State of Queensland (Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service), Annual Report 2023-2024

[ii] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2024, Cairns Hospital: Total emergency department presentations, Australian Government, accessed 30 July 2024

[iii] The State of Queensland (Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service) Annual Report 2020-2021

Last updated: May 2025