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Consideration transferred

The Committee of the Legislative Assembly referred this Auditor-General’s report to the Health and Environment Committee on 16 March 2023. On 13 February 2024, the Legislative Assembly amended Schedule 6 of the Standing Rules and Orders of the Legislative Assembly, establishing the Health, Environment and Agriculture Committee, and transferred the Auditor-General's report to the Health, Environment and Agriculture Committee for consideration.

Overview

Role of the Auditor-General 

The role of the Auditor-General is to provide Parliament with independent assurance of public sector accountability and performance. This is achieved through reporting to Parliament on the results of its financial and performance audits.

About the Auditor-General Report

View: Auditor-General Report 10: 2022-23 - Health 2022

This report discusses the audit results of Queensland Health entities, which include the Department of Health (the department) and 16 hospital and health services (HHSs). It also summarises the audit results for 13 hospital foundations, 4 other statutory bodies, and 4 controlled entities. 

The Queensland Audit Office (QAO) found that financial statements prepared by Queensland Health entities, hospital foundations, and the other statutory bodies are reliable, and that the timeliness of reporting has improved. However, the QAO suggested annual reports should be progressively tabled as they are provided to the minister, instead of all annual reports in the portfolio being tabled at the same time.

The QAO also reports that internal controls are generally effective, although some deficiencies were identified in information systems controls. The report made 1 recommendation to strengthen the information system and cyber security controls of the 16 hospital and health services.

The QAO found that the short-term financial position of the sector improved in 2021–22, but that after 2 years of a minimum funding guarantee and access to NPA COVID-19 funding, 2022–23 will be a challenging one for HHSs with an increased likelihood of HHSs reporting operating deficits as they return to a funding model based on delivering against activity targets. 

The QAO also found that the HHS workforce is under pressure due to staff sick leave and overtime, an increase in frontline contractor expenses due to system capacity issues and an increase in unused staff recreation leave. 

As of 30 June 2022, the department and HHSs reported total anticipated asset maintenance of $1.1 billion. This is a 22 per cent increase from the prior year ($901 million). 

The QAO found that in 2021–22, the total number of long waits for specialist outpatient services increased by 80 per cent to around 104,000 patients. In addition, the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) (which is part of the department) is facing growing demand for all its services, including the most urgent. The QAO reports that the time it takes ambulance crews to transfer patients into the care of emergency departments increased significantly in 2021–22, with the QAS experiencing approximately 134,155 lost hours  – a 20 per cent increase compared to 2020–21 (if a patient transfer takes longer than 30 minutes, the extra time is considered ‘lost’ time for QAS).  

Referral to Committee 

Standing Order 194B provides that the Committee of the Legislative Assembly shall as soon as practicable after a report of the Auditor-General is tabled in the Assembly refer that report to the relevant portfolio committee(s) for consideration. 

The committee is responsible under section 94 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 for assessing the integrity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government financial management by examining government financial documents and considering reports of the Auditor-General.

The Committee of the Legislative Assembly referred this Auditor-General report to the committee on 16 March 2023.

Related information

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