Residents of the Burnett Electorate will soon be able to judge improvements in the performance of their local hospital on key data – such as waiting times and emergency department access – according to Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and Member for Burnett, Stephen Bennett.
The two say full details of local hospital performance and comparison data stretching back for 15 months will be published online for the first time from October 4.
“These are the key facts of hospital performance which suffered under Labor,” Minister Springborg said today. “By publishing this information and comparative trends over time, the LNP Government provides a yardstick for local residents to measure the impact of our devolved administrative structure.”
“The LNP is committed to lifting the veil of secrecy about the performance of our hospitals – in direct contrast to the former Labor Government,” Mr Bennett said “As a result people will now be able to see the percentage of emergency department patients seen within clinically recommended times, the number of elective surgery patients operated on and the median waiting times for treatment.”
Minister Springborg said he had also instructed the Health Department to work towards releasing the so-called “waiting list for the waiting list” in the future.
“For years Labor denied the waiting list for the waiting list even existed – despite every single Queenslander knowing differently. In particular over 200,000 Queenslanders found themselves seemingly stuck on this secret list the former Government refused to acknowledge even existed.” Mr Springborg said.
Mr Bennett said the publication of this data was an important part of the process of ensuring the recently created local Hospital and Health Board focussed on the needs of the local community.
“The LNP’s restructure of Queensland Health will transfer full control of local hospital and health services into the hands of a local board – a key step forward in maximising performance and leading to service delivery which is tailor-made for our local communities,” Mr Bennett said.
“Solutions from a local perspective are long overdue in our region. This is a Board made up of local people who know our local health providers and are looking at the best possible opportunities to improve co-operation,”
“Together, they will improve service delivery and deliver results where it counts – in areas like ED performance and hospital waiting times,” Mr Bennett said.