When Cairns Hospital patients become reluctant long term ‘residents’

Imagine walking into a Cairns Hospital room and seeing a young father in his 40s, paralysed from a workplace accident, staring out the window day after day.

Published: 19 December 2025
  • qld
  • 19 December 2025
  • Queensland Government

Or an elderly woman, her dementia deepening in the glare of fluorescent lights and lack of sleep, due to the daily din of the hospital.

These aren’t patients - they’re ‘residents’.

These reluctant residents of our hospitals in the Far North are an unfortunate symptom of a lack of appropriate aged care places or supported residential accommodation in the community.