Health ‘cover up’: Data reports changed six months out from election

Shannon Fentiman’s insertion into the poison chalice health portfolio was aimed to get failings off the front page, but almost 12 months on there are more questions than answers, writes Hayden Johnson.

Shannon Fentiman’s insertion into the poison chalice health portfolio was aimed to get hospital and ambulance failings off the front page.

Her predecessor Yvette D’Ath had struggled in the quicksand of Queensland Health’s systemic failings and Covid-19-related pressures.

Then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk installed Ms Fentiman, who pledged to be more transparent about data and release more of it. She asked her department to immediately reassess how hospital performance data was released amid fears patients were being kept in the dark.

While the health minister considers releasing average ambulance ramping data instead of total time lost is more accurate – it’s also more time-consuming to compare.

Changing data reporting six months out from an election raises natural questions about the timing.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

If we’re to trust Ms Fentiman, the old way would show lost time improving – blunting an LNP attack. Instead, the government has faced days of questions about this claimed cover-up. The government says the old way of doing it offered little context about how under pressure the hospitals are, but that’s context for Queenslanders to consider.

Worryingly for Labor is the perception – magnified in regional Queensland – the government is struggling to deliver a quality healthcare system. Queenslanders are yet to see the transformative information release from Ms Fentiman, which would improve the state’s health system.

Key to this is real-time hospital data that would allow people to quickly decide which facility to attend and wait the least amount of time.

Six months out from a state election, however, the LNP is also yet to deliver a detailed blueprint to fix the under-pressure Queensland Health.

Originally published as Health ‘cover up’: Data reports changed six months out from election