Ros Bates calls for Gympie Hospital ambo ramping stats

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been accused by the LNP of ‘secrecy’ over the state’s ambulance ramping crisis.

LNP calls for Labor government to release monthly ambulance ramping data for Gympie Hospital.

The state opposition has called on Health Minister Shannon Fentiman to reveal monthly ambulance ramping data for the Gympie Hospital, saying despite requests, none had been given since December 2022.

That last data reported 31 per cent of patients waited more than 30 minutes to be transferred to a hospital bed, a press release from opposition spokeswoman for health Ros Bates said.

This wait is referred to as ambulance ramping and occurs when paramedics must continue to treat patients in the ambulance as they wait for an available hospital bed.

It points to the capacity of the hospital, but also means ambulances must remain in hospital bays, unable to respond to any further call outs.

Queensland’s target is set for 90 per cent of patients to be transferred from ambulances within 30 minutes and has not been met by the state for the last seven years, stated the Australian Medical Association Ambulance Ramping Report Card in 2022. 

The opposition government called for the “Palaszczuk Labor Government to end the cover-up and release monthly ambulance ramping data for Gympie Hospital” and claimed Ms Fentiman had “shut down openness and transparency in favour of a protection racquet to save her own political skin”.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates has called on the state government to release ambulance ramping statistics for Gympie hospital. Picture: Shae Beplate.

The data in question was under statewide review and would be released in the coming weeks, a spokesperson from the minister’s office said.

“I want to make sure that we put out as much data as we can and that we are accountable and transparent,” Ms Fentiman said at a press release in Bundaberg on Thursday morning.

She said the government was working on how to present the data rather than uploading spreadsheets to the Queensland Health website.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman at the press release announcing the tender for the new Bundaberg Hospital on July 6, 2023. Picture: Nicole Strathdee

“There are best practice guidelines for how you can present data in a way that Queenslanders can better understand the pressures of our healthcare system, but also where we‘re doing well,” she said.

“I have committed to that we are taking our time to get it right and in the next few weeks, I assure you, you will be seeing even more data presented in a more meaningful way for Queenslanders.”

Performance from Gympie Hospital’s Emergency Department show a median wait of 20 minutes for the March 2023 quarter.

This figure, the Queensland Health website says is “out of range of the latest national performance, but not in the poorest performing group of hospitals”.

The Gympie ED had more than 8000 attendances in that quarter (January – March 2023).

Originally published as Ros Bates calls for Gympie Hospital ambo ramping stats