LABOR HIDES HOSPITAL CODE YELLOWS FROM PUBLIC
The chaotic Palaszczuk Labor Government has been caught deliberately hiding critical health data by no longer informing the public when Queensland hospitals run out of beds.
New documents reveal the Palaszczuk Labor Government will no longer release information about the number of “Code Yellow Emergencies” at Queensland Hospitals.
The Queensland Government has released the number of Hospital Code Yellows (or Tier Two or Three)* every year through Parliamentary Questions on Notice. in 2023, for the first time, the Health Minister has chosen to keep this information from Queenslanders.
Code Yellows are issued when there are no available beds in a Queensland Hospital.
The reportage of incidents allows Queenslanders to understand the true depths of the Queensland Health Crisis.
Recently, the Palaszczuk Labor Government changed the metric of “Code Yellows” to “Tier Twos and Tier Threes” *, now they have changed how the information is released.
The LNP Opposition is calling on the Palaszczuk Labor Government to immediately reverse its chaotic decision so Queenslanders can have full transparency about the true extent of the chaos and crisis of Queensland Health.
Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli said Queenslanders deserve to know what is happening in their hospitals.
“Integrity in government is important and to see the Palaszczuk Government go down a path of secrecy is unacceptable,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“We are demanding the Health Minister release the data that Queenslanders deserve to see.
“Knowing how often, and for how long, our hospitals are being overrun isn’t a ‘nice to know’, it’s a critical step to healing the Queensland Health Crisis.
“Transparency is key to driving accountability and change through the health system.
“If the Palaszczuk Government is honest about healing the Queensland Health Crisis, they will reverse this decision today and release the information Queenslanders deserve to see.”
Shadow Minister for Integrity Fiona Simpson said refusing to be upfront with Queensland on health data is a sign of a chaotic government beset by its own Integrity Crisis.“The dodgy dealings of the chaotic Palaszczuk Government knows no end and we cannot allow Labor to drag our health system into the dark,” Ms Simpson said.
“The Health Minister is intentionally making decisions to hide the truth.
“If the Government can’t be honest about the problem, they can’t be honest about fixing it.”
Shadow Minister for Health Ros Bates said the Palaszczuk Labor Government are so mired in chaos and crisis, they are now refusing to tell Queenslanders how often our hospitals are overflowing.
“It’s unfathomable the Health Minister doesn’t want Queenslanders to know how often our hospitals are overrun,” Ms Bates said.
“How can the government possibly know how bad the problem is if it has seemingly stopped counting?
“Is it any wonder Queenslanders no longer trust the Palaszczuk Labor Government to heal the Queensland Health Crisis.”
-ENDS-
Notes:
- *Queensland Health changed “Code Yellow Emergency” to the “Tiered Escalation System” in mid-2022.
- *The Equivalent of a Code Yellow – a Tier 2 Declaration – is when there is “limited capacity to meet the needs of the local community in the facility”. The Minister now says these declarations “are not routinely recorded”.
- *A Tier 3 Declaration goes above the former Code Yellow. It is declared when there is “limited capacity to meet the needs of the local community in the majority of facilities in the HHS”. The Minister now says these declarations are “not reported on a calendar monthly basis”, and too difficult extract.
Yearly Questions on Notice answers:
- 2021 (DATA RELEASED) – https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tableoffice/questionsanswers/2021/470-2021.pdf
- 2022 (DATA RELEASED) – https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tableoffice/tabledpapers/2022/5722T1019-EA5E.pdf (page 35 and 36)
- 2023 (DATA KEPT SECRET) – https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tableoffice/questionsanswers/2023/449-2023.pdf