Dr Fanie Viljoen

Dr Fanie Viljoen is an anaesthetist who enjoys providing anaesthesia for a variety of surgical specialties.

He has a special interest in Perioperative Medicine and Obstetric Anaesthesia and works part-time as an anaesthetist at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane. He is a course instructor for Managing Medical and Obstetric Emergencies and Trauma – a course aimed at training anaesthetists and obstetricians in obstetric emergencies.

Dr Viljoen acknowledges that preparing for surgery can be stressful for patients. This awareness fuelled his interest in Perioperative Medicine, leading him to complete a masters degree in this field. He strongly believes that patients should be medically optimised for surgery to have the best outcomes.

Dr Viljoen began his medical career in South Africa. He completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Pretoria in 1999. He gained experience in South Africa, the UK, NZ and Australia. He recognised that he enjoyed acute care medicine and after completing a Diploma in Anaesthesia he decided to train as a specialist anaesthetist.

Dr Viljoen completed five years of anaesthetic training in New Zealand to become a specialist anaesthetist and a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FANZCA) in 2013. He further received the qualification of Graduate of the Chapter of Perioperative Medicine from ANZCA.

In Australia, Dr Viljoen worked as a consultant anaesthetist in Rockhampton for seven years and then moved to Brisbane to take up his position at Mater Mothers’ Hospital.

Overall, he enjoys that anaesthetics has many facets like perioperative clinics, pain rounds, teaching, and management. But what he enjoys most is time spent inside the operating room, being part of a team providing direct care to a patient.

Dr Viljoen is devoted to his Christian faith and his family, saying that family always comes before work. He values work-life balance and spends his leisure time enjoying sports, woodworking, and hobby farming.