In the same quarter that Queensland's most severe COVID wave peaked, public health services managed to record slight improvements in some key performance measures.
In July, August and September this year, fewer people presented to public emergency departments, but the number of Category One patients — those who need the most urgent care — increased by 7 per cent.
"We have seen a very small improvement in some areas, but as we expected this data does cover the third wave of COVID, where it took til mid-August before we started coming down off those really high staff furloughed numbers and COVID bed numbers," Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said.
"What I'm pleased to say, though, is despite all of those challenges we had over the last quarter, we have seen improvement again on elective surgery, and particularly the high-acuity ones."
Queensland hospitals unloaded 56 per cent of patients from ambulance stretchers within the recommended 30-minute time frame.
That's a 1 per cent improvement on the previous quarter, but means ambulance ramping, where paramedics are parked at hospitals waiting to hand over patients, was at 44 per cent.
"We continue to see patient off-stretcher time — there's been about a 1 per cent increase — we weren't expecting much different to that over the last quarter," Ms D'Ath said.
"The important thing to remember is, it is one measure. We're seeing an improvement in ambulance response times … the response time is really important."
But the state opposition said that metric continued to paint a picture of an overburdened health system.
"Despite 20,000 fewer people turning up at EDs, the wait times have barely moved. It remains the worst in the nation," LNP leader David Crisafulli said.
"Forty four per cent — that means there's nearly a one-in-two chance of a Queenslander waiting longer than they should at the end of a ramp. It means that a paramedic is unable to do their job."
"The question remains, when will ambulance ramping return to 15 per cent? That's the figure it was when this government took office."
Elective surgeries increased
Queensland ever so slightly increased the number of elective surgeries it performed over the three-month period.
There are now 58,553 public patients waiting for an elective surgery in Queensland — about 600 more than in the previous quarter.
Almost 22 per cent of patients didn't receive surgery within a clinically recommended time.
Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said that was not good enough.
"That's more than one in five patients are not being seen within the clinically recommended time," she said.
Another 5,000 patients were added to the waitlist for specialist outpatient services — sometimes called the waitlist for the waitlist.
