Queensland hospitals are under increased pressure, with high occupancy rates often cited as causing an increase in emergency department wait times and patient stretcher times. To reduce the rate of potentially preventable hospitalisations, Queensland Health is developing several preventative strategies as part of its My health, Queensland’s future: Advancing health 2026 strategy. These include:

• early disease management
• provision of appropriate and individualised preventative health interventions.

By minimising hospitalisations, the social and economic pressures are reduced on the health system. The Australian Medical Association reported that $21 billion could be saved over 4 years (2021–22 to 2024–25) by reducing unnecessary hospitalisations and emergency department presentations.

Update – March 2024

As part of our audit planning process, we consider whether the work we plan to perform is completed at the right time to add value. Given this topic’s complexity – with various entities and multiple levels of government playing a key role in funding care, and funding reforms currently underway – we have reassessed whether it can be best addressed through a performance audit.

As such, we will no longer undertake a performance audit. Instead, we will include some information on this topic in our annual report on the results of our financial audits of health entities. Our Health 2024 report will include an overview of:

• the conditions for potentially preventable hospitalisations
• how relevant statistics are developed
• the Department of Health’s initiatives intended to minimise potentially preventable hospitalisations.