Hospital data kept secret after Government changes protocols

Patients are being kept in the dark on how much pressure Queensland hospitals are under after the Health department scrapped the “code yellow” warning status.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman will ask the department to reassess how hospital performance data is released.

New health minister Shannon Fentiman has asked her department to reassess how hospital performance data is released amid fears patients were being kept in the dark.

Previous health minister Yvette D’Ath oversaw the change to the way it reports surges in hospital capacity and how they can be tracked over time by removing the “code yellow” warning status – a move the Opposition described as going down “a path of secrecy”.

But after requests from The Courier-Mail, Ms Fentiman said she would instruct the department to reassess the protocols.

“As noted by the former health minister the requested data is not collected monthly,” she said.

“I have asked the department to assess how this data can be best managed into the future to ensure that we are providing Queenslanders with transparent and efficient insight into the realities confronting our hardworking health workers,” she said.

Yvette D'Ath was health minister when the “code yellow” warning status was removed. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The government had claimed that revealing that data to parliament would be an “unreasonable” use of resources.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli called on Ms Fentiman to commit to full health data transparency.

“Integrity in government is important and to see the Palaszczuk government go down a path of secrecy is unacceptable,” he said.

Previously the number of hospital “code yellows” – meaning when a hospital faced a “loss of essential service” – was able to be sourced easily from Queensland Health.

While a code yellow could relate to service issues – such as the failure of electricity, water or technology services – it was also frequently used by hospitals when they were faced with capacity issues.

But the change to both the escalation system and the reporting of it implemented in 2022 means requests for such information have now been knocked back – and Queensland patients now don’t know which hospitals are facing capacity issues.

Queensland had been facing a rising number of “code yellow” events, which could be clearly tracked before the change, with the figure jumping from 295 in 2016 to 499 in 2020.

Since about April last year Queensland hospital and health services use a tier system for hospital capacity escalations from 0 to 3, with tier 3 the most urgent level.

In a Question on Notice tabled through state parliament to then health minister Yvette D’Ath last month, the government stated tier 3 data was not reported on a monthly basis, and to “extract, collate and fact-check would require an unreasonable diversion of the department’s resources”.

This was despite the department providing the number of tier 3 capacity escalations over the six-month period from last January to last July, on a month by month basis, last July.

Last month’s response goes on to say tier 0 to 2 escalations – which include when hospitals face a “moderate” impact which may cause category two and three procedures forced to move to private hospitals – are managed within the facility or HHS “in alignment with the definitions in the Health Service Directive”.

“They are not routinely recorded locally or reported to the Queensland Patient Access Coordination Hub as they are local mechanisms to manage demand,” Ms D’Ath’s response stated.

Mr Crisafulli said Queenslanders deserved to see the data.

“We are demanding the Health Minister release the data,” he said.

“Knowing how often, and for how long, our hospitals are being overrun isn’t a ‘nice to know’, it’s a critical step to healing the Queensland health crisis.

“Transparency is key to driving accountability and change through the health system. If the Palaszczuk ­government is honest about healing the Queensland health crisis, they will reverse this decision today and release the information Queenslanders deserve to see.”

LNP health spokeswoman Ros Bates questioned if the state government knew how bad the problem was.

“How can the government possibly know how bad the problem is if it has seemingly stopped counting?,” she said.

“Is it any wonder Queenslanders no longer trust the Palaszczuk Labor Government to heal the Queensland health crisis?”