LIFE Medical
DR TOM
WRIGHT Dr Tom Wright is proud to belong to a very select club of second generation doctors practicing in Cairns. There are only a handful of doctors who have followed their medical father’s footsteps to practice medicine. Other members of the club are Dr John Knot, Surgeon, Dr Mike Mansfield, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr Tim Warnock, Paediatrician and Dr Kate Heazlewood, Surgical Assistant. Tom was born in England but he and his family moved to central Africa when he was 3 years old and his childhood and early teenage years were spent in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, now called Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dr James Wright, Tom’s father worked in the rural areas of central Africa dealing with everything from tuberculosis; hippopotamus bites through to cataract surgery for blindness. (Shades of the Fred Hollows Foundation) The family migrated to Cairns in 1965 where James Wright joined Drs Charles Knot and Graham Cousins in an Abbott Street medical practice situated where the Night Markets now stand. James became a popular general practitioner in Cairns in the 1960s and 70s, whilst Tom’s mother Joan Wright established her own identity as a teacher at Trinity Bay High School and as an environmental activist advocating for the establishment of the Tropical Rainforest World Heritage listing. Tom Wright completed his high schooling at Trinity Bay High School then studied medicine at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. After two years of work in rural Queensland Tom moved to England where he developed an interest in obstetrics and gynecology.
Returning to Sydney in the 1980’s with a young family Tom completed his specialist qualification at Westmead Hospital in Sydney’s Western suburbs. After at 5 year period of practice in Mackay, Tom moved to Cairns in 1990 joining Drs Michael Carrette and Bob Miller providing obstetric and gynecology services in both Cairns Base Hospital and Calvery Hospital, later to be renamed the Cairns Private Hospital. Now Tom practices from his own rooms in Flecker House. As well as being a member of the close knit second generation club Tom is proud to have been able to provide obstetric services to two generations of women in Cairns. “It was a humbling experience when I first delivered a baby for a mother who herself I had delivered” says Dr Wright. “I realised that I was an important part of the midwifery, obstetric, and paediatric team in providing safe and satisfying birthing experiences to two generations of Cairns mothers.” Despite having a busy obstetric practice, Tom still maintains an interest in gynecology and provides a wide range of office gynecological procedures coupled with in hospital gynecological surgery based on the well resourced theatres of the Cairns Private Hospital. Tom has recently renovated his offices and now has an associate, Dr Pheobe Hong, working along side him. Tom welcomes Dr Phoebe’s enthusiasm for laparoscopic gynecological surgery and her fresh approach to obstetric care.
Dr Thomas Wright 3a Flecker house 5 Upward Street Cairns, QLD, 4870 Phone : 07 4041 2600 | Fax : 07 4051 8075