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Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service

Emergency care

  • Emergency Care
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  • Immunisation
  • Nurse-to-patient Ratios

Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service

Emergency care

Emergency care
  • Emergency Care
  • Elective Surgery
  • Breast Screen
  • Oral Health
    • Atherton Dental Clinic
    • Cairns North Dental Clinic
    • Chillagoe Dental Clinic
    • Croydon Dental Clinic
    • Edmonton Dental Clinic
    • Georgetown Dental Clinic
    • Innisfail Dental Clinic
    • Mareeba Dental Clinic
    • Mossman Dental Clinic
    • Smithfield Dental Clinic
    • Tully Dental Clinic
    • Yarrabah Dental Clinic
  • Immunisation
  • Nurse-to-patient Ratios

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.

Quarterly emergency department information for April, May, June 2023
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
Quarterly emergency department information for children 14 and under for April, May, June 2023
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.

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