The ACT government said an investment in more beds was the cause for the first year on record where Canberra public hospitals met the recommended safe occupancy level.
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Occupancy rates across the hospitals averaged 85 per cent last financial year, down from 90 per cent a year before, the recently released ACT Health annual report showed.
The improved figures – which meant the ACT hit the safe bed occupancy level advised by the Australian Medical Association – came despite a three per cent or 10,000 increase in the number of overnight hospital bed days of care.
But the lower figures were not all that they seemed, with the government acknowledging they could not be compared to previous years after ACT Health changed its counting method.
"The counting methodology means reliable comparisons of bed occupancy data can no longer be made between previous years," he said.
Yet the spokesman also said the "significant improvement in occupancy rates is directly related to a significant increase in bed numbers."
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT secretary Jenny Miragaya said she found it hard to believe average occupancy had fallen to 85 per cent, and her anecdotal evidence would place Canberra Hospital's rate somewhere between 90 and 95 per cent, depending on the definition of a bed.
"At the moment we're still talking about people in the beds in the Medical Imaging Area overnight Monday to Thursday," she said.
"If you have 85 per cent occupancy why would you be using that area?"
Canberra Hospital had an average of 88 per cent of its overnight beds in use during 2014-15, and Calvary Public Hospital 78 per cent. The latest figures, for the four months to October, showed a combined rate of 86 per cent.
The ACT had 1068 public hospital beds at the end of last financial year, up from 1030 in 2013-14. The 2015-16 budget provided for another 18.
The health spokesman said the revised method – which was not declared in the annual report – counts all minutes of care provided as they occur, whereas historic methods only counted activity of patients who had left the hospital.
Australian Medical Association ACT president Elizabeth Gallagher welcomed the figures, saying the government had provided a slight increase in beds and the building of the Bruce subacute hospital would further raise numbers.
"But we've got to remember the population is ageing and that need is going to continue to grow," he said.
Available beds were defined as all overnight beds within the actual hospital campus, excluding the Independent Living Unit, he said. No form of chairs, trolley or corridor was treated as a legitimate bed or ward space.
