The state government says it has accepted the challenge from the Queensland branch of the Australian Medical Association to increase community oversight, by appointing the newly created Health Ombudsman to audit hospital and surgical waiting times.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the independent Health Ombudsman would take control of emergency department and surgical wait list reporting from Queensland Health from July next year.
The state's individual health boards will report to ombudsman Leon Atkinson-MacEwen, who is also charged with conducting, co-ordinating and reporting on health complaints.
"This will deliver the guaranteed consistency and independence in wait-list reporting sought by the AMAQ in its policy submission prior to the 2012 Queensland election," Mr Springborg said.
"We were told 'hospital performance statistics should be gathered and reported by an independent body', That is exactly what this government will do."
AMA Queensland president Shaun Rudd welcomed the news, but said more could be done.
"There is always the possibility of not comparing apples with apples," Dr Rudd said.
"It is always helpful to have comparative data between hospital and health services and, if possible, between states to help find areas which require more resources or increased efficiency.
"We need to know referral-to-treatment times, in other words the time from referral by the general practitioner to the time of treatment by the hospital specialist.
"The numbers waiting are not that important, it is the percentage of patients that are being seen and treated within clinically recommended times."
The government set out to make Queensland Health and its perceived successes the focus of last week, announcing the state's "best ever" surgical wait lists. But it was dogged by the Opposition, which focused on the 250,000 people waiting to go on the wait list.
The Opposition also welcomed the government's announcement, but questioned its timing.
"I always welcome more scrutiny on this government's performance, but the LNP should focus more on service delivery and patient outcomes and less on pure numbers," Opposition Health spokeswoman Jo-Ann Miller said.
"... Patients tell me that when they head to hospital, their experience is more about hospitals reaching performance targets than proper treatment.
"Patients aren't just statistics, they're real people with real problems, something this government struggles to recognise.
"Given that the Health Ombudsman should be focused on patient issues and complaints, we would encourage all Queenslanders on waiting lists to continue to make their complaints to the Health Ombudsman so that the agency can get an accurate indication of the government's performance on its key indicators."
