Will Cairns

Dr Will Cairns OAM is Consultant Emeritus Palliative Medicine at Townville University Hospital, and Associate Professor at James Cook University.

Will Cairns is a palliative medicine specialist. After his education in Australia, the US and the UK, he has lived and worked in Townsville since 1978.

Among other things, he has been a member of the board of PCQ (PCAQ at the time), President of the ANZSPM, President of the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine, coordinated the Application to the Australian Medical Council for the recognition the specialty of Palliative Medicine, and was a member of the AMC writing group for Good Medical Practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia.

In recent years he has written broadly on issues of care at the end of life and the role of palliative care in disaster management, including the challenges of triage when that becomes necessary in disasters such as pandemics.

He is a founding member of the Australian COVID-19 Palliative Care Working Group.