Health Minister Shannon Fentiman accused of withholding ambulance data

State Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been ­accused of withholding key health data.

Shannon Fentiman Health Minister - Photo Steve Pohlner

State Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been ­accused of withholding data, with 130 days passing since ambulance ramping figures were last released.

Hospital and patient data is recorded each quarter and generally released within two months post the quarterly cut-off, meaning data for the January-March quarter is due to be released by the end of this month.

Ms Fentiman has assured Queenslanders the most ­recent quarterly figures will be released on time but the ­Opposition has criticised the lag, saying it shows the minister is not releasing data more frequently as promised when she took over the portfolio from Yvette D’Ath.

It comes after previous ­attacks on Ms Fentiman’s ­decision to change the format in which the ramping data was released to average wait times instead of total lost ambulance hours.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said if the LNP won the October election, he would release health data in “real-time”.

“We’ll deliver that within 100 days,” Mr Crisafulli said.

Ms Fentiman vowed the data would be made public as soon as it was available, but ­refused to say whether ambulance ramping was getting better or worse.

“When I have the data you’ll have the data,” she said.

“It is always released around two weeks into the month.”

Originally published as Health Minister Shannon Fentiman accused of withholding ambulance data