ACT's health performance 'a disgrace'

The ACT is the worst-performing state or territory when it comes to emergency department wait times, and the gap between it and other jurisdictions is widening, new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the ACT was facing unprecedented demand, with more complex patients coming to the territory's emergency departments.

She cited the planned hospital expansion, dubbed SPIRE - not due to be completed until 2024 - and extra emergency beds at Calvary Hospital as key government investments to address the issue.

But Australian Medical Association ACT president Antonio Di Dio said it came down to inadequate resourcing, in terms of both beds and staff, throughout Canberra Hospital.

He said the minister should produce evidence that showed ACT patients were more complex than other jurisdictions, if she was to present that as a reason for the figures.

"I think it is a distraction," he said.

"It is also quite simply not appropriate to blame the patients and say you shouldn't be going to EDs."

Dr Di Dio said much of the problem came down to bed block - the time patients wait in the emergency department for a bed to become available on a ward.

"We welcome the SPIRE centre and welcome new infrastructure but that's not going to do anything to solve the problem right now," he said.

"[Ms Stephen-Smith] needs to articulate to her government that more resources are required and we will support her in this in every possible way that we can.

"She's very genuine person and interested in good health outcomes.

"We feel she needs our help and support in delivering a message to her government that more resources need to be allocated to health."

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Liberal ACT senator Zed Seselja said the figures were "a disgrace".

"With Commonwealth funding to hospitals in the ACT having doubled since the Coalition came to government, ACT Labor are out of excuses," he said.

"With record Commonwealth health funding and huge rates increases, Canberrans deserve high-quality services. ACT Labor seem incapable of delivering this."

But Ms Stephen-Smith said when it first won office, the Liberal government cut health funding compared to what it would have been under Labor.

"That's been a challenge for all the states and territories to manage," she said.

ACT opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said the minister was ignoring the facts and failing to come up with a solution.

"Continuing to point to an investment that won't be delivered until 2024 doesn't solve the issues that Canberrans are facing today or will face in the coming weeks and months," she said.

"I will continue to keep the minister to account because Canberrans deserve better."