Queensland Health
Queensland Health is the state government department responsible for managing the public health system in Queensland, Australia. Its structure includes sixteen independent Health and Hospital Services (HHSs) and a central Department of Health that formulates state-wide healthcare policies. The primary mission of Queensland Health is to ensure that all residents have access to public healthcare services and to address public health challenges in collaboration with local and Commonwealth authorities. Established in 1901, Queensland Health has undergone significant restructuring over the years to improve efficiency and address administrative challenges, particularly following the payroll crisis in 2011 that led to national scrutiny. It provides a broad spectrum of healthcare services, including hospital care, mental health services, children’s healthcare, and telehealth. Each HHS operates independently, governed by boards that ensure adherence to policy while addressing local health needs. The department employs over 75,000 individuals and plays a crucial role in balancing the healthcare priorities of accessibility, quality of care, and cost management within the context of a state-run healthcare system.
On this Page
Queensland Health
- Date founded: 1901
- Industry: Hospital; healthcare
- Corporate headquarters: Brisbane, Australia
- Type: Government
Queensland Health is the department of the state government of Queensland responsible for the administration of the public health system, as overseen by the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services and the Director-General. It consists of fifteen independent statutory bodies known as Health and Hospital Services (HHSs) and the Department of Health that sets statewide policy. Queensland Health is tasked with making sure all Queenslanders have access to public healthcare services, and for overseeing public health issues in the state in conjunction with Commonwealth and local bodies. In addition to public health programs, Queensland Health and its services provide hospital inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care, children's healthcare, aged care, rural care, midwifery, telehealth services, oral health services, and mental health services.
History
Queensland Health was founded in 1901. In 1945, the Hospital Benefits Agreement Act was passed, enacting an agreement between Queensland and the Australian government whereby free and universal public hospital treatment would be provided in Queensland, as overseen by Queensland Health. Most of the rest of the country soon followed. This was the first time that Australians had proposed a nationalised healthcare system, rather than a national health insurance system.
In 2005, Queensland Health underwent a restructuring, consolidating several of its administrative districts to reduce the number from thirty-eight to twenty. These twenty districts were further reduced to fifteen in 2008, with only nine districts remaining unchanged throughout the two restructurings.
In 2011, Queensland Health faced the danger of being dismantled when Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland and a member of the Australian Labor Party, targeted it as an example of government waste due to payroll system problems that had cost hundreds of millions of dollars on top of a theft of $16 million. The payroll system had been rolled out late and was plagued with problems: thousands of workers were underpaid or not paid at all, while others were overpaid. The department's inability to find a quick solution became a national scandal, among the worst public administrative failures in Australian history. Over the next few months, various reforms were proposed, with Bligh intending a radical decentralisation of Queensland Health, such that most administrative decisions would be done on the local level rather than at the state level.
However, in the 2012 state election, the Labor Party suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in the history of Queensland, and Blight announced her retirement from politics effective on 30 March. As a result, what reforms were made to the department were much less drastic than what Labor had proposed. The Queensland Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry was established at the end of 2012 in order to hold public hearings on the problems with the system and the best remedies. Furthermore, greater administrative power was given to the HHSs, each of which created its own board of management, answerable to the minister.
In 2016, Queensland Health lost a legal action launched by the Commonwealth government on its behalf against IBM, over the payroll system problems that had wound up costing the government over $1 billion. The government claimed that IBM had failed to deliver on its contract for a new, functioning payroll system; the justice ruled in favour of IBM not for lack of fault but because of a 2010 agreement that had released the company from damages claims. In 2023, Queensland Health had additional payroll problems caused by the late arrival and filing of forms for its more than 125,000 employees. This resulted in nearly $50 million in overpayments.
Queensland faced significant negative publicity from an auditor general's report published in 2025. The 2023-2024 report found that the wait time for patient specialist outpatient care had risen 29 per cent in the last nine years. More than 100,000 people waited longer than was recommended for critical services like cardiology and paediatric medicine. The report also uncovered 157,602 hours of lost ambulance time. Satellite hospitals were also a cause for concern. According to the report, 3,513 patients in need of emergency care were presented to satellite hospitals. These hospitals were not equipped to treat patients suffering from major heart attacks, massive trauma injuries, seizures and strokes. The report indicated that these facilities need to be renamed to prevent patient confusion over the type of care administered within them. Furthermore, the report noted that 37 per cent of Queensland's buildings will need to be replaced in the next ten years.
Impact
Since the 2008 restructuring, the fifteen health service districts of Queensland Health have consisted of Central Queensland, Townsville, Mackay, Cairns and Hinterland, Torres and Cape, Central West, South West, Darling Downs, Sunshine Coast, Metro South, Metro North, Gold Coast, North West, West Moreton, and Wide Bay. While not considered a district, Children's Health Queensland operates the children's hospital in South Brisbane. These districts are independent statutory bodies, providing public health services in their respective geographic areas, each of which is governed by a hospital and health board and a health service chief executive.
The result of Australia's adoption of state-run healthcare services was an ongoing debate between the medical profession and the government bodies that oversee it about the aims and priorities of the healthcare system. The medical profession seeks to maintain a minimum quality and ethical standard of care, and to preserve the autonomy of healthcare workers. In addition, medical professionals are historically most invested in individual patient care. Government agencies are primarily concerned with expanding availability of care to as much of the public as possible, while also keeping an eye on total costs and the concerns of the electorate. While these priorities are not necessarily mutually exclusive areas of concern, they can be at odds. Doctors' interest in individual patient care, for instance, results in increasing costs when healthcare is available to all. The government may have difficulty staffing healthcare services in underserved or remote areas if medical professional autonomy means that professionals seek out the highest-paying or most conveniently located positions.
The administration, boards, hospitals, and other facilities of Queensland Health together have over 130,000 employees. In addition to the HHS boards and Children's Health Services, the department includes various other bodies and commissions tasked with special duties, such as the Health Quality and Complaints Commission, which develops and implements standards of clinical practice for both public and private healthcare services in Queensland.
Queensland Health also administers the 13-HEALTH line (13 43 25 84), a toll-free phone line for dispensing free non-emergency health advice to Queenslanders.
Bibliography
"Health Infrastructure Queensland." Queensland Government, 20 Nov. 2024, www.health.qld.gov.au/system-governance/health-infrastructure. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
"Hospital Benefits Agreement Act of 1945." Australian Acts of Parliament, 10 Geo VI, No 2, www7.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/qld/hist‗act/hbaao194510gvn2363/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
"Queensland Health Payroll Fail: Government Must Pay IBM Costs." The Sydney Morning Herald, April 4, 2016, www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/queensland-health-payroll-fail-government-ordered-to-pay-ibm-costs-20160404-gnxpqj.html. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
"Scathing Audit Report Reveals True Depth of Labor's Health Crisis." The Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory, 15 Jan. 2025, statements.qld.gov.au/statements/101843. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
Swannell, Cate. "Queensland Health Blows $50m on Overpayment." Health Services Daily, 12 Dec. 2023, www.healthservicesdaily.com.au/queensland-health-blows-50m-on-overpayments/9811. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
Wardill, Steven. "Queensland Health Scam Details Appear in Department Reports." The Courier Mail, December 13, 2011, www.couriermail.com.au/news/scam-appeared-in-department-reports/news-story/f2a3f9fefcd5362becb08cf3680248c0?sv=c94d6054d595013ba2f5ca46f0b52e45. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.