Minister blasted for data
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has been accused of skewing ambulance performance data to avoid revealing how many hours paramedics lost waiting outside emergency departments.
The state government, in response to an LNP question, revealed the average time each ambulance lost when ramped rather than the total time data it has previously provided.
Shadow Health spokeswoman Ros Bates accused Ms Fentiman of attempting to skew figures, noting lost time data from the first nine months of 2023 was on track to eclipse the worst on record.
The opposition routinely extracts “lost time” data as a measure of the hours paramedics spend ramped with patients to prosecute the government’s health management.
Queensland ambulances regularly spend thousands of hours outside emergency departments each month, with the data for each hospital and health service handed over at least five times since September, 2022. When asked again in February, Ms Fentiman provided the average time each ambulance lost when ramped as opposed to the total time – infuriating Ms Bates.
“Shannon Fentiman has become less accountable, less transparent and has failed to understand just saying you’re transparent doesn’t make it so,” Ms Bates said.
The Health Minister dismissed the opposition’s complaint, insisting the data was provided as requested “just in a different format”. “If Ros Bates cannot do simple maths, I do not know how she can expect to run a health system,” she said.
Ms Bates has written to Speaker Curtis Pitt demanding Ms Fentiman hand over details about hours paramedics waited outside emergency departments.