Queensland ambulance ramping at five-year low, says Premier David Crisafulli
The state government has claimed ambulance numbers have fallen to a five-year low, but the opposition says Queenslanders are still struggling to even get a hospital appointment.
Prime Minister David Crisafulli announced on Sunday that the increase reached a five-year low of 37.3 percent in the last quarter of 2025.
“The number of ambulances has tripled in Queensland in the last decade,” Crisafulli said at QEII hospital on Brisbane’s south side.
“This [the latest figure] “This is the best result recorded in the last five years and shows that the changes made are starting to bear fruit, but we still have a long way to go.”
The government claimed that elective surgery waiting lists remained almost constant at 62,000, a number that fell to 66,632 immediately after the election.
But Labor deputy opposition leader Cameron Dick said 300,000 Queenslanders were still waiting for an appointment at a public hospital.
He said that number was equivalent to the combined population of Townsville and Cairns.
He said the average monthly specialist waiting list under the LNP had grown twice as fast as in the last year of the Labor government.
“The LNP today want to give themselves a medal for their performance when it comes to the increase in public hospitals, but that is the oldest trick in the book,” Dick said.
“If you can’t make an appointment with a doctor, your treatment journey will never start and you’ll never need a hospital bed.
“This could free up more beds for patients arriving at hospitals via emergency departments, but it leaves hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders languishing on the waiting list for help.”
Health Minister Tim Nicholls said the figures will change and more work needs to be done, but the trend is in the right direction.
Patients waited 29 days for their first specialist appointment, according to December data from Queensland Health.
Data also shows that it takes 14 minutes to be seen in the emergency room. More than 207,000 people reached emergency rooms across the state. The number of people arriving by ambulance was 64 thousand 625.
The figures came on Sunday as preliminary data marked a milestone for the expansion of the QEII hospital, with the top floor completed and fit-out expected to begin shortly.
The expanded hospital will bring 112 new inpatient beds, improved surgical facilities and a new car park.
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Cloe Read is the Brisbane Times’ crime and courts reporter.Connect with: X or email.
