Description
Cairns Hospital is the largest major referral hospital in Far North Queensland caring for patients from the Torres Strait to Tully. They offer many specialist health services. The health service provides public hospital and health services to a population of about 250,000 people. Top 3 things to do: 1. Dive the Great Barrier Reef 2. Hike the Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island 3. Explore the Daintree
Location
Reviews
2025
Cairns ED was a friendly and supportive place to work. Their orientation and onboarding process was very ogranised and the accommodation we were provided was excellent. The hospital is near the centre of Cairns so we were able to walk to work but were also close enough to explore Cairns itself as we did not have a car; including walking distance to the marina for day trips to the Barrier Reef. Shifts were 8.5 hours rather than the usual 10 which means fewer days off in the fortnight for exploring but balances out with better pay on the daily rate.
2025
Orthopaedic Ward RMO Daily workflow: Prepare patient list 6:30am, start rounds at 7am, morning meeting at 7:30am, continue rounding with consultant/reg or by yourself post meeting, attend daily ortho MDT meetings 8:30am, consultant ward rounds twice weekly at 12pm. Usually finish by 4:30pm but often can run overtime. Jobs usually include wound reviews, reviewing clinical deterioration, patient discharges. There are specific RMOs allocated to admissions, wards and clinics and they usually stay in this role for half/full term. Overtime: Cairns does not pay for overtime even for their own permanent junior doctors. There is a daily pay rate for locums despite unavoidably doing overtime most days. Take this into consideration and plan ahead by handing over to after hours team. The permanent RMOs on a full day roster will finish at 5pm (they alternate between half days and full days), so you can handover jobs to them as well. Workload: Heavier on post take days. Usually will have 2 juniors total in a team, but can pull juniors from less busier ortho teams to help out if needed. Support: Well supported by registrars for ortho related things. Rarely work with consultants except on consultant ward rounds. I’m PGY3 with mostly ED experience so I felt comfortable dealing with clinical deterioration on the wards as ortho ward RMO. Very friendly inpatient teams who you can call for advice / referrals. There is a dedicated periop team who see patients who are medically comorbid. Orthogeris is available inconsistently (they only work till 2-3pm, some days there is no reg/consultant). IT system: Mostly iemr. Paper forms for imaging requests. Accommodation: Need to find yourself and locum agent will book. Given a budget of $150/night. I stayed at Gray Whale Anchor Inn which is 10 mins walk from the hospital - 1 bedroom unit with kitchen and bathroom, there is a shared coin laundry downstairs. Travel: No car hire provided by hospital. Buses are available but there seems to be one main route which do not reach some places that you may want to go to. Ubers are available but often long wait times. I would advise hiring a car especially on days off so you can do grocery shopping / explore places. It’s also very humid in Cairns and very difficult to walk outside for too long. Activities: Must visit places are Kuranda Scenic Railway / Skyrail, Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures, Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge!
2025
Great placement in Cairns Emergency Department as an RMO. Welcoming and well organised for our arrival, we were taken to arrange ID access, phones and a tour of the department. Department was well staffed with FACEMs/Registrars/RMOs and very supportive, easy to pick up the flow given I had worked with Queensland Health before. They use iEMR firstnet apart from radiology forms which are paper. The only thing that was different to what I expected was that shifts are 8.5 hours for locums so you have different start/finish times to other juniors, however most seniors are aware of this so wasn't an issue. I stayed in a lovely airbnb right next to the hospital which was convenient for shift work and still close enough to walk into the city. A car is useful for exploring the waterfalls and surrounds. Floriana was our go-to cafe near the hospital, and Edge Hill had nice restaurants to try. Overall definitely recommend this placement.
2025
I really enjoyed my placement at Cairns Base Hospital as a general medicine RMO. I worked day shifts and was allocated to a particular team for the week/few weeks generally. The week was generally 1x 12hr day (on-take) and then 3-4x 8hr days (or 1x 4hr day in there). The workload was quite manageable - it was busy but I found there were actually a lot of people around to help. As an RMO there was always a registrar or consultant around to help and I found everyone very approachable and easy-going. The IT systems were all online and were pretty intuitive - I was given orientation on the systems on the first day. I stayed at an airbnb apartment right next door (which I would highly recommend). The hospital is on the esplanade so I woke up, walked 100m to work, finished on time and then went for a walk along the water in the evenings. Would highly recommend! I found a coffee at the close-by Muddys cafe overlooking the water to be one of my most relaxing spots! I had a run of 4 days off and learnt to dive on the great barrier reef during this. The outside-of-work options are incredible!! (Highly recommend visiting Fitzroy Island).
2026
Absolutely loved working with the paediatric team at CBH. It's busy and the workload is reasonable, but nothing outside the norm for the size of the hospital and its catchment area. There are a few registrars rostered during the day (each one allocated to a specific role) and 2 during PM and night shifts - so you're never by yourself to make that one critical decision. The consultants are super friendly and approachable, and they would promptly come after hours if there is a very sick child. Overall for a registrar position they expect a good level of independence/clinical decision autonomy. But I didn't feel unsupported at all in challenging situations such as a difficult IVC, etc. There's always someone to help. The accommodation was just across the road from the hospital -perfect location. It was a bit dirty and maintenance wasn't done properly but I don't think that's a reason not to take the placement. And of course, Cairns is a fun city, full of cool things to do around. Make sure you take the railway crossing the daintree forest and explore Kuranda. Beautiful experience. I'm definitely looking forward to go back!
2022
1) Good working environment. 2) they allocate budget for acxom but we have to find our own accom.
2026
I did 5 weeks on Neurology/Stroke as an RMO which I thoroughly enjoyed. The team/department was lovely, and the SMOs were always happy to explain any questions (which was great as I had very minimal Neurology experience). The workload for the time I was there was quite manageable and seniors very supportive, however, previous RMOs/Regs mentioned it could get quite busy - seems to ebb and flow. In terms of IT, you are provided with a training day prior to starting for the ieMR system which is a decent system and doesn't take long to get the hang of. I was in Cairns during 'winter' or the dry season - usually sunny and not so humid. Quite a popular time of year for tourists, so Cairns was bustling with people most of the time, which provided a great atmosphere! There is so much to explore in Cairns, let alone surrounding Cairns and North Queensland in general. Would highly recommend this placement, but also just a Cairns placement in general.