General News
21 July, 2026
More people get surgery
MORE than 900 people have come off Cairns Hospital surgery waiting lists in the past year.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive officer Leena Singh paid tribute to “our very hardworking clinicians and our support staff of our theatre complex here at Cairns Hospital, but also out in the rural hospitals”.
“We’ve been able to actually have another record year for our surgical throughput,” she said.
“So, we’ve been able to beat last year’s record … last year was a record year … it’s back-to-back records for our health service in terms of how many people have been able to access their elective surgical procedures.
“We’ve now been able to get another over 8% more people through theatre in the last 12 months than we did prior to the previous 12 months.
“That means more Far North Queenslanders are getting their care as quickly as they possibly can. Over almost 18,000 people have been able to get both planned and emergency care through our health service in the last 12 months and that’s been because of the investment through ‘surgery connect.
“So, we’ve been able to use some of our private partners to do some of our procedures, but also significantly, a big thanks and a big accolade to our theatre staff and both our clinical and non-clinical teams who ran Saturday lists and additional theatre capacity to make sure that we’re able to get more people through – and that’s been a wonderful record and a wonderful achievement from our organisation for the people of the Far North.
“Of course, coming up very soon, the first 32 beds that will be coming online later in this year, and they’re dedicated to our increase in surgery as well, and a trauma area as well. So, what we’ll see is even more capacity for our people up on the Far North Queensland area to be able to access that planned care a lot more quicker –and we’ll be able to get people back on their feet and living their quality lives as well.”
Member for Barron River Bree James said hospital waiting lists were down significantly in the last 12 months.
“Over 900 people off the wait list, which is fantastic,” she said.
Ms Singh said, as well, ambulance ramping waiting times were now one of the lowest in the state.
She said it was an absolute credit to all of the clinicians to make sure that patients received the care they needed as quickly as they possibly can.
Ms James said ambulance ramping was down and “we’re below the state average”. She said surgery waiting lists were also down “and it’s an incredible achievement you’ve done in the last 12 months”.
“We’ve also got the $1 billion investment into the Cairns Hospital,” she said.
