Surgical Services

The Townsville Hospital and Health Service offers specialist care in general surgery and many specialty areas. These include neurosurgery, ENT, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, plastic surgery maxilliofacial surgery, orthopaedic surgery and paediatric surgery.

Surgical clinics
Patients who require surgery are first seen by our surgical clinics. During this time patients are categorised into an urgency category, with one being the most urgent and three being the least urgent. This ensures that those most in need of care will receive their treatment first. You can find out more about categories and expected wait times here.

Elective surgery
The Townsville Hospital and Health Service defines surgery under two headings; emergency surgery and elective surgery. Patients requiring emergency surgery usually present through our emergency department and require treatment immediately. All other surgeries are referred to as elective surgery.

Patients undergoing elective surgery can do so at The Townsville Hospital or, if they choose to, may be able to have their surgery performed at one of our rural hospitals. Surgeons from The Townsville Hospital routinely perform elective surgical procedures in rural hospitals such as Ingham, Ayr and Charters Towers. This allows patients from these areas to have their surgeries closer to home. The procedures carried out in rural areas are undertaken by specialist surgeons and anaesthetists from The Townsville Hospital.

Patients who do elect to have their procedures performed at rural hospitals are offered travel assistance through Queensland Health.

Hospitals don’t use the traditional ‘first-come first-served’ approach when it comes to treating patients. Hospitals triage, or sort, patients based on how urgently they need to be seen. This means patients with immediate or life-threatening illness or injury will be seen before patients with less-serious problems. While every effort is made to see patients for their scheduled appointment or surgery, sometimes emergencies may mean we have to reschedule. In the event that your appointment or surgery is rescheduled, we will let you know as soon as possible and fit you in at the earliest available time slot.

Surgical wards
Surgical Clinical Decisions Unit (SCDU)

SCDU admits patients who have been assessed in the Emergency Department and require admission to the surgical floor. This can include if an operation is required on that day or if you are an elective surgical patient and need to come into hospital earlier than your surgery date. Most patients are moved within 24 hours of being admitted to the surgical floor under your home-team doctor. If you need to stay longer the SCDU staff and your doctors will ensure that your care is continued. If you have a cardiac condition and don’t require telemetry, then you could also be admitted to SCDU from the Emergency Department.

If you go for your surgery from SCDU you will be admitted post operatively to one of the surgical wards. This will either be surgical ward 1, 2 or 3 at The Townsville Hospital, or the general ward at our rural facilities.

Surgical ward 1 (orthopaedics)

• Major joint replacement
• Fractured neck of femur
• Osteoporotic fractures
• Traumatic fractures
• Lacerations and tendon damage
• Gynaecology

Surgical ward 2

• Vascular
• Urology
• Colorectal
• General surgery
• Necrotising fasciitis

Surgical ward 3

• Ear, nose and throat (ENT)
• Neurosurgery
• Faciomaxillary
• Plastics

Please note that surgical ward 3 is predominantly a neurosurgical unit and a low-stimuli area. For the wellbeing of our patients we ask that you keep visitor numbers to a minimum at all times.

Referral
Referral to our surgical services will be through your GP.