Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service
Emergency care
Queensland Health provides free public hospital emergency care across the state to people who are seriously injured or ill and need treatment.
This page tells you how busy an emergency department (ED) is, and gives information on its performance. For further information about emergency departments and how to access emergency services visit ED Facts.
When a person 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. There are five triage categories, where 1 is most urgent and 5 is least urgent. The triage system ensures that 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 hospital.
| Indicators | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 | Category 5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of attendances | 506 | 6,439 | 16,130 | 16,394 | 6,368 | 45,837 |
| Variation in number of attendances | 17% | 9% | -2% | 1% | 2% | 1% |
| Patients seen within clinically recommended times | 100% | 71% | 67% | 72% | 89% | 72% |
| Median waiting time to treatment (in minutes) | 0 | 7 | 19 | 30 | 26 | 18 |
| Percentage of patients who did not wait for treatments | 0% | 0% | 2% | 5% | 7% | 4% |
| Patients admitted from the Emergency Department | 68% | 50% | 32% | 10% | 4% | 23% |
| Admissions to hospital within four hours | 45% | 35% | 31% | 40% | 68% | 35% |
| Patients whose ED stay was within four hours | 52% | 48% | 55% | 78% | 91% | 67% |
| Number of patients who left after treatment commenced | 4 | 101 | 496 | 532 | 110 | 1,243 |
| Percentage of patients who left after treatment commenced | 1% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 3% |
| Number of patients who did not wait for treatment | 0 | 17 | 379 | 893 | 425 | 1,714 |
| Indicators | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 | Category 5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of attendances | 54 | 786 | 3,174 | 3,210 | 702 | 7,926 |
| Variation in number of attendances | 23% | 11% | -3% | 1% | 3% | 1% |
| Patients seen within clinically recommended times | 100% | 68% | 65% | 73% | 92% | 71% |
| Median waiting time to treatment (in minutes) | 0 | 8 | 20 | 30 | 26 | 20 |
| Percentage of patients who did not wait for treatments | 0% | 0% | 3% | 5% | 7% | 4% |
| Patients admitted from the Emergency Department | 56% | 35% | 14% | 4% | 1% | 11% |
| Admissions to hospital within four hours | 50% | 30% | 25% | 39% | 50% | 30% |
All data is preliminary and subject to change. "-" indicates data not available to determine calculation or not applicable.
Source: Queensland Health Emergency Department Information System.