Operating Theatres and Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit

Townsville University Hospital operates a level 5-6 surgical intervention service to the North Queensland community. The theatre complex comprises 14 operating theatres providing both elective and emergency theatre sessions within the following disciplines: 

• Anaesthetics
• Cardiac
• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Fascio-Maxillary and Dental
• Hepatobiliary, Gastrointestinal and Breast Endocrine
• Neurosurgery
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedics
• Paediatrics
• Plastic Reconstruction Surgery
• Thoracic
• Transplant donor site only
• Trauma
• Urology
• Vascular

In addition, the teams provide anaesthetic support to outlying departments including medical imagery, oncology, endoscopy, cardiac services, brachytherapy and mental health.

The theatre complex and outlying areas are supported by an 18-bed Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit to provide highly-skilled, post-procedural care.

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.

Referral Procedure

Patients are referred to the theatre from the emergency department, specialist clinics, and wards and admitted to the service via the emergency theatre, planned procedural unit and the wards.