By Angela Dorizas

The Queensland Government has announced its plan to make available online data from hospital emergency departments

Deputy Premier and Health Minister, Paul Lucas, said the initiative would for the first time provide the public with access to emergency department data, including access block, wait time and attendances by hospital and by triage category.

The data will be published regularly on the Queensland Health website.

Mr Lucas said Queensland Health had already reported more comprehensive data than any other state, with the Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report containing more than 1800 separate statistics in every report.

“Queensland Health’s data reporting makes the My School website look light-on,” he said.

Mr Lucas said the data was not a measure of performance, but a means for clinicians to identify pressure points within the emergency department and where resources need to be allocated.

“But we also recognise the value of this data to the broader community, which is why we have made the decision to publish it regularly,” Mr Lucas said.

“Accountability breeds excellence. The more we report the better the indication we have of where we can improve.”