General Paediatrics at Mater Children's Hospital is run by six general paediatricians, five of whom are visiting medical officers and one whom is a full-time staff specialist. The general paediatric service aims to offer acute and chronic care to children and their families from all over Queensland. Most of the patients come from the South East corner and are referred directly by their family doctors or present acutely to the emergency department.

Tertiary referrals are also accepted from regional centres and the general paediatricians will often have a heavy involvement with patients on discharge from intensive care or those who have multiple problems particularly if it involves surgical subspecialties. The general paediatricians aim to work  closely with family doctors to provide a broad range of care and, as much as possible, in the home. They also aim to provide a tertiary assessment and opinion for children with complex problems and will work closely with subspecialists to ensure that the answers given are as complete as possible for the families involved.

General paediatric units are busy units which care for children with a broad range of pathology. Trainees can expect to obtain very broad experience and will have their skills in history-taking, examination and development of differential diagnoses and management plans, developed throughout their rotations. The general paediatric units are particularly important for the development of junior staff and will place particular emphasis on the training of JHOs and SHOs in paediatrics. Many of the consultants will work directly with junior staff when the registrars are in outpatients. The general paediatricians are an important part of both paediatric basic and advanced training.

Further information on general paediatric training at Mater Children's Hospital can be obtained from Dr Julian Mellick, Director of Post Graduate Education by phone on +61 7 3371 3133.