Hospital warning removed

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.

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.