Dr Richard Hocking

Dr Richard Hocking is an experienced Australian Trained Orthopaedic Surgeon, graduating with his medical degree from the University of New South Wales in 1997. Dr Hocking then worked as a junior doctor in various NSW Hospitals before he was accepted into the Australian Orthopaedic Association’s training programme in 2001. Dr Hocking completed postgraduate orthopaedic training in Sydney on the Sydney Northside Training programme in 2005. Following this, Dr Hocking spent two years in Canada completing prestigious post graduate fellowships in both Adult Reconstructive Surgery and Paediatric Orthopaedics.

After completing these fellowships, Dr Hocking established a mixed public and private subspecialty practice in Canberra.

In 2015, Dr Hocking and his family moved to Qld for a “Sea Change”. Initially Dr Hocking worked at Bundaberg Base Hospital whilst he and his family adjusted to the Qld way of life, including pursuing their interests of remote touring, fishing, boating, and supporting the school lives of his children.

In 2017, Dr Hocking commenced private practice at Coral Coast Orthopaedics in The Friendlies Medical Suites and has admitting privileges to both The Friendly Society Private Hospital and The Mater Bundaberg.

Dr Hocking performs comprehensive orthopaedic surgery of the appendicular skeleton (arms and legs) including primary and revision joint replacement in both the upper and lower limbs, elective arthroscopic (keyhole) surgery to the shoulder, knee and ankle, and extremity surgery to the hand and feet.

Following on from his adult reconstruction fellowship, Dr Hocking performs Primary Hip Replacements, Hip Resurfacings and Revision Total Hip Replacements. Dr Hocking performs a full range of arthroscopic knee surgery including ACL reconstruction, osteotomies around the knee, primary partial knee replacements, total knee replacements and revision total knee replacements.

Dr Hocking is currently a Senior Instructor for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons faculty for Early Management of Severe Trauma. With this interest, Dr Hocking continues to perform orthopaedic trauma surgery and accepts cases from Emergency Departments throughout the Wide Bay and Burnett.

Dr Hocking has used computer navigation in his joint replacement cases since his post graduate fellowship in 2006. As navigation has evolved, Dr Hocking has trained in Robotic Assisted Joint Replacement and since 2021 has offered Robotic Assisted Total Knee Replacements in the Bundaberg Region.

Dr Hocking holds academic interests in diagnosing and managing Orthopaedic Infections. He is currently collaborating on a project to improve the diagnosis of orthopaedic infections using genomic technology. The project was initially a multi-site study based solely in Qld. The study has grown and now includes sites in other states in Australia and overseas.