Townsville Hospital and Health Service

Congratulations to Townsville Hospital and Health Service social worker Chris Fox OAM, who has been recognised in the 2026 King's Birthday Honours List.🏅🌟

For more than 35 years, Chris has supported patients and families across north Queensland, helping people through some of the toughest times in their lives.

Whether it's assisting someone experiencing homelessness, supporting a family in crisis, helping patients navigate the health system, or mentoring young social workers, Chris has built a reputation as someone who always shows up for others.

Townsville Hospital and Health Service chief executive Kieran Keyes said the honour was a fitting recognition of Chris's contribution to healthcare.

"Chris has spent decades advocating for patients, supporting families and helping people navigate some of the most difficult times in their lives," he said.

"Her compassion, integrity and commitment to others have made a lasting difference to countless people across north Queensland, and this recognition is richly deserved."

Congratulations Chris on this outstanding achievement! 🎉👏

📸 Pictured: Chris Fox OAM with her THHS 35 Years of Service certificate.

Meet our Disaster Recovery Team, a new service being offered by the Townsville Hospital and Health Service.

It’s to help those north Queenslanders who are still struggling mentally and emotionally from last year’s downpour which led to flooding across our region, particularly in Ingham.

It is a multi-disciplinary team made up of clinicians, doctors, and support workers.

It’s free and no formal mental health diagnosis is needed.

Reach out to the team yourself on 4433 2730 or by emailing [email protected].

On Friday, we celebrated our people at the annual Townsville Hospital and Health Service Staff Excellence Awards at The Ville Resort-Casino. 🎉

Joined by special guest, Minister for Health the Honourable Tim Nicholls, Health Service chief executive Kieran Keyes said it was a wonderful chance to celebrate the achievements of staff who embodied the values, vision, and purpose of the Health Service.

Retired surgeon Dr John Hack was also honoured with the conferring of the title Consultant Emeritus for eminent service, leadership, and professional excellence.

The winners were:

🌟Integrity - Drug and Alcohol Brief Intervention Team
🌟Compassion - Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Clinic Team
🌟Accountability - Courtney Fisher, speech pathologist
🌟Respect - Cleveland Youth Detention Centre Health Child Development Program team
🌟Engagement - Michael Illin, program manager Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing assessment engagement service
🌟Excellence in Staff Wellbeing - Louise Thiele, nurse educator neonatal
🌟Rural Health Worker of the Year - Helen Shaw, pharmacy assistant
🌟Purpose - Emergency Medicine Education and Training Team
🌟Vision - North Queensland Kidney Transplant Service
🌟People's Choice - Cleveland Youth Detention Centre Health Child Development Program Team
🌟Minister's Choice - Kirsty Swain, clinical nurse consultant perinatal loss coordinator
🌟Premier's Delivering for Queensland - Ayr and Ingham surgical services teams

🏆Congratulations to all the winners!

The Townsville University Hospital neonatal intensive care unit has wrapped up two weeks of kangaroo cuddles 💛

As part of the Miracle Babies Foundation Kangaroo-A-Thon, families have been logging skin-to-skin cuddle hours with their premature and unwell babies, and the results speak for themselves.

For Mackay parents Jacqui and Brendan, that first cuddle with baby Jude born at just 23 weeks and 633 grams said it all.

His first kangaroo cuddle came at six days old.

"The moment I was able to hold Jude, my heart was bursting with love and the world stood still," Jacqui said🤱💙

Skin-to-skin contact helps settle heart rate, breathing and temperature in premature babies, boosts bonding, and supports milk supply.

Watch this space, we'll be sharing our Kangaroo-A-Thon results soon!

Photo credit: Shae Beplate

Construction work is kicking on at the Ingham Hospital.

That means there's some changed traffic conditions around the hospital and the carpark.

Please take care and thanks in advance for follow direction from traffic control and signage.

One of Townsville University Hospital’s longest-serving staff specialists, Dr Kimberly Oman, recently called time on hospital life.

The infectious diseases specialist retired after more than 25 years with the Health Service, with just a small cohort of doctors from her era still kicking about the hospital.

“We came here at the beginning of 2001 and I started working with the School of Medicine to help set up the new MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) program, and since then I was a director of physician education for a few years and worked with the infectious diseases department,” Dr Oman said.

“From that era, there’s only a few physicians left; Dr Kunwarjit Sangla and I started on the same day, he was actually my registrar, and now he’s my boss, Dr Tracey Symmons was a rehabilitation registrar who’s now a consultant and helped setup the department, and Dr Arun Menon who’s the director of sexual health.”

Passionate about helping small communities fight infectious diseases, Dr Oman has travelled to places like Papua New Guinea and Fiji to combat the spread of HIV, something she said will continue in her retirement.

“The HIV epidemic has hit them really hard, so what I’m doing at the moment is helping write up the guidelines and working on a national prescriber program which takes the burden off my Fijian colleagues,” she said.

But it won’t just be all work for Dr Oman, she is, after all, retired now.

“For the rest of my time I think I’ll aim to get really fit, travel, do some hikes, swim, take more ballet classes, and spend a lot of time doing more trips to visit family.”

Sam’s story is the stuff of legend.

Seven months ago, Sam was swimming in the pristine waters off Thursday Island when he nearly fatally mauled by a shark.

The 15-year-old had to swim 20 metres to shore while holding his vital organs in after the shark had taken a significant bite out of his abdomen.

He was airlifted from Thursday Island to Townsville University Hospital with his mum Shanna beside him.

His surgeon, Dr. Brendan O’Connor, called it some of the most extensive injuries he’d ever seen.

But after more than 20 surgeries, which included an innovative reconstruction using a biodegradable matrix that will grow with him, Sam is back home with his family.

Sam’s mum, Shanna, said God was with Sam that day.

⚠️ Temporary traffic changes at Ingham Health Service ⚠️

From 6am Monday 1 June to 6pm Tuesday 2 June, part of the western ring road within the Ingham Health Service campus will be closed to allow for essential construction works.

Traffic control and signage will be in place throughout the works. Access to the emergency department will remain available via the eastern end of the campus.

If you're visiting the health service during this time, please allow extra travel time, follow all signage and traffic directions, and take care when driving through the grounds.

We thank the community for its patience and understanding while these important works are completed.

Congratulations to the Townsville Hospital and Health Service team behind Two Worlds, One Healthcare System: Eliminating Racism Together, Humans in Health and Making Deadly Decisions! This week, the team was recognised as Highly Commended in the Health and Wellbeing category at the 2026 Queensland Reconciliation Awards 👏🌟

This recognition reflects the dedication of the Indigenous Health Service Division team and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff who bravely shared their lived experiences through the Humans in Health campaign.

By sharing their stories, these staff have helped create opportunities for truth-telling, reflection and learning across our health service, challenging us all to build a workplace where cultural safety is experienced every day.

Well done to everyone who contributed to this important work. We are incredibly proud of this recognition and of the staff whose courage and leadership continue to drive meaningful change.