Emergency Care
First Nations peoples are more likely to access the Emergency Department than other Queenslanders. This may be as a result of wider concerns within the health care system including lack of access to other primary health care options and only accessing health care when in critical need. First Nations peoples are more likely to access the Emergency Department than other Queenslanders.
A culturally safe clinical environment is required with access to cultural support and advocacy when accessing the service and connections made to community-based health care services. Mob ED at the Queensland Children’s hospital is an example of a transformative service to meet the needs of First Nations peoples.
Going to the ED?
To read more about a visit to the ED for the mob visit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander support page.
Emergency care activity for First Nations peoples
Queensland provides free public hospital emergency care to people who are seriously ill or injured and need urgent treatment. Queensland tracks key metrics such as arrivals at the Emergency Department (ED), to understand how busy Queensland hospital Emergency departments are. The data reported on this page relates to patients who have identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
Arrivals at the Emergency department
Hospital EDs measure the number of people who arrive via private transport, ambulance, emergency rescue services or other means. An arrival at ED commences at the point in which a patient presents to an ED and is registered and triaged to assess how urgent their condition is.
At a glance
Arrivals by urgency category
When an individual arrives at an ED for treatment, a qualified triage nurse assesses how urgent their condition is and assigns a category according to the Australasian Triage Scale (ATS). There are 5 triage categories (1 to 5), where 1 is most urgent and 5 is least urgent. The triage system ensures people most in need of care are treated first. Patients are seen in order of medical priority and not in order of arrival at the ED.
Arrivals at the Emergency department by ambulance
Queensland Health report the number of patients that arrive to Emergency Departments (ED) for care via an ambulance. This includes those who arrive through the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) and other ambulance services.
QAS performance
To view detailed activity and performance information about QAS, visit the QAS performance page.
Emergency care performance for First Nations peoples
This section provides insights into the operational performance of Queensland hospital Emergency departments including indicators highlighting the timeliness of treatment from arrival through to admission or departure to capture the experience and potential disparities in healthcare performance for First Nations Queenslanders.
Waiting times at the Emergency department
When a patient arrives at a Queensland hospital Emergency department for treatment, a qualified triage nurse assesses how urgent their condition is and assigns a category according to the Australasian Triage Scale, set by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM). The triage system ensures people most in need of care are seen and treated with priority, and within the shortest timeframe.
Hospitals measure the performance of treatment timeliness by capturing the percentage of patients at an ED who were treated within the clinically recommended time for their assigned triage category. A higher percentage of patients seen within the clinically recommended times indicates a higher level of performance by the hospital.
Unexpected departures from the Emergency department
In some instances, patients choose to not wait for treatment to commence. For patients in less urgent triage categories, this might occur if a patient feels they no longer require treatment, or if the wait time is longer than they expect. In other instances, patients may decide to leave the hospital after their clinical care has commenced but before their care has been completed, often against medical advice.
Total length of stay (LOS)
Extended stays in the Emergency department (ED) may cause ongoing bottlenecks in other parts of the hospital and can risk patient safety. As part of the National Health Reform Agreement, Queensland Health is committed to reducing the length of time that patients stay in the ED.
The 'length of stay' in the ED refers to the time between a patient's arrival and departure. Patient departure refers to discharge from hospital, admission into hospital for further care, or other, such as a transfer or departure against medical advice. Hospitals measure the proportion of patients whose length of stay in the ED is within 4 hours. This is reported per the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT). A higher percentage of care completion within 4 hours indicates a higher level of performance by the hospital.
Emergency care outcomes for First Nations peoples
This section provides information on the outcome of the emergency care service provided at hospital Emergency departments (ED), including the number of patients who were admitted to hospital following their ED visit.
Admissions into hospital from the Emergency department
Following a clinical decision, a patient at an Emergency department (ED) may be formally admitted to hospital. Patients being admitted to hospital from the ED will be relocated to an appropriate treatment environment such as a short stay unit, inpatient ward, or operating theatre, often within the same hospital facility.
First Nations data
Click the links below to view the performance of Queensland Health services for First Nations peoples