Hospitals
Specialised services and clinics
A specialised service unit is a facility or unit dedicated to the treatment or care of patients with specific conditions or characteristics, such as an intensive care unit.
A list of specialised service units and their descriptions can be found in the ‘More information about the data’ section below.
Explore the data
The data visualisation below provides a list of selected services provided by public hospitals, including specialised care units, in 2023–24.
The information about services provided by a hospital is intended as a general guide only. There is the potential for some omissions or errors in this information and readers should contact a hospital directly for the latest advice on the services available.
This graph shows the most common specialised service units in public hospitals. In 2023–24, there were 331 Domiciliary care units and 281 Nursing home care units in Australia.
The table lists hospitals that have specialised service units, such as renal transplantation unit, diabetes unit and liver transplantation unit.
Specialised services and clinics overview
In 2023–24, the most common specialised service units in public hospitals were:
- Domiciliary care units (present in 332 public hospitals)
- Nursing home care units (present in 281 public hospitals)
- Maintenance renal dialysis centre (present in 222 public hospitals).
There were 89 Intensive care units (level III and above), and 30 Neonatal intensive care units (level III and above).
These data are sourced from data from the National Public Hospital Establishments Database. More information about these data can be found in Hospital resources 2023–24 data tables (XLS 544 kB). Definitions of the terms used in this section are available in the Glossary.
Specialised service units
The following list the types of specialised service unit.
- Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) unit – A specialised facility dedicated to the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients.
- Acute renal dialysis unit – A specialised facility dedicated to dialysis of renal failure patients requiring acute care.
- Acute spinal cord injury unit – A specialised facility dedicated to the initial treatment and subsequent ongoing management and rehabilitation of patients with acute spinal cord injury, largely conforming to Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Council guidelines for service provision.
- Alcohol and drug unit – A facility/service dedicated to the treatment of alcohol and drug dependence.
- Bone marrow transplantation unit – A specialised facility for bone marrow transplantation.
- Burns unit (level III) – A specialised facility dedicated to the initial treatment and subsequent rehabilitation of the severely injured burns patient (usually >10 per cent of the patient’s body surface affected).
- Cardiac surgery unit – A specialised facility dedicated to operative and peri-operative care of patients with cardiac disease.
- Clinical genetics unit – A specialised facility dedicated to diagnostic and counselling services for clients who are affected by, at risk of, or anxious about genetic disorders.
- Clinical pharmacology and/or toxicology service – A facility/service dedicated to providing clinical pharmacology and/or toxicology service.
- Comprehensive epilepsy centre – A specialised facility dedicated to seizure characterisation, evaluation of therapeutic regimes, pre-surgical evaluation, and epilepsy surgery for patients with refractory epilepsy.
- Coronary care unit – A specialised facility dedicated to acute care services for patients with cardiac diseases.
- Diabetes unit – A specialised facility dedicated to the treatment of patients with diabetes.
- Domiciliary care service – A facility/service dedicated to the provision of nursing or other professional paramedical care or treatment and non-qualified domestic assistance to patients in their own homes or in residential institutions not part of the establishment.
- Geriatric assessment unit – Facilities dedicated to the Commonwealth-approved assessment of the level of dependency of (usually) aged individuals either for purposes of initial admission to a long-stay institution or for purposes of reassessment of dependency levels of existing long-stay institution residents.
- Heart, lung transplantation unit – A specialised facility for heart including heart lung transplantation.
- Hospice care unit – A facility dedicated to the provision of palliative care to terminally ill patients.
- In-vitro fertilisation unit - A specialised facility dedicated to the investigation of infertility provision of in-vitro fertilisation services.
- Infectious diseases unit – A specialised facility dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases.
- Intensive care unit (level III) - A specialised facility dedicated to the care of paediatric and adult patients requiring intensive care and sophisticated technological support services.
- Liver transplantation unit – A specialised facility for liver transplantation.
- Maintenance renal dialysis centre – A specialised facility dedicated to maintenance dialysis of renal failure patients. It may be a separate facility (possibly located on hospital grounds) or known as a satellite centre or a hospital-based facility but is not a facility solely providing training services.
- Major plastic/reconstructive surgery unit – A specialised facility dedicated to general purpose plastic and specialised reconstructive surgery, including maxillofacial, microsurgery and hand surgery.
- Neonatal intensive care unit (level III) – A specialised facility dedicated to the care of neonates requiring care and sophisticated technological support. Patients usually require intensive cardiorespiratory monitoring, sustained assistance ventilation, long-term oxygen administration and parenteral nutrition.
- Neurosurgical unit – A specialised facility dedicated to the surgical treatment of neurological conditions.
- Nursing home care unit – A facility dedicated to the provision of nursing home care.
- Obstetric/maternity – A specialised facility dedicated to the care of obstetric/maternity patients.
- Oncology unit, cancer treatment – A specialised facility dedicated to multidisciplinary investigation, management, rehabilitation and support services for cancer patients. Treatment services include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
- Pancreas transplantation unit – A specialised facility for pancreas transplantation.
- Psychiatric unit/ward – A specialised unit/ward dedicated to the treatment and care of admitted patients with psychiatric, mental, or behavioural disorders.
- Rehabilitation unit – Dedicated units within recognised hospitals which provide post-acute rehabilitation and are designed as such by the State health authorities.
- Renal transplantation unit – A specialised facility for renal transplantation.
- Sleep centre – A specialised facility linked to a sleep laboratory dedicated to the investigation and management of sleep disorders.
- Specialist paediatric – A specialised facility dedicated to the care of children aged 14 or less is provided within an establishment.