Queenslanders will be able to look online to view the performance of their hospital emergency departments under a new initiative from Queensland Health.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Health Paul Lucas said the new initiative would give the public greater access to information about their hospital emergency departments.

Data to be published regularly on the Queensland Health website will include emergency department (ED) data such as access block, wait times, and attendances by hospital and by triage category.

“Queensland already reports more comprehensive data than any other state, for example the Quarterly Public Hospitals Performance Report contains more than 1800 separate statistics in every report,” Mr Lucas said.

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

The new emergency department data is currently manually uploaded by clinicians in every ED and used by them to monitor and assess how their ED is travelling.

The data changes regularly and is not a measure of performance, rather it is a collection of data that enables clinicians to identify where there are pressure points in the ED and thus where resources and staff need to be re-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.

Queensland Health will begin uploading the January data as soon as it becomes available, but is also in the process of developing a system to enable the data to be uploaded more regularly.

“Accountability breeds excellence: the more we report the better the indication we have of where we can improve,” Mr Lucas said.