Canberra hospital wait times grow: Minister says Canberrans expect better

Less than half of the people who presented to emergency departments in the territory received treatment within the recommended time for their urgency between October and December last year.

New figures from ACT public health services quarterly performance report showed only 19 per cent of urgent patients were seen on time at Canberra Hospital.

This is down from 21 per cent in the previous quarter.

The median wait time for urgent patients was 85 minutes. The median wait time for semi-urgent and non-urgent patients at Canberra Hospital also grew.

Canberra's emergency department performance has been trending down for some time.

However, Calvary Hospital reported a decrease in waiting times across urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent categories over the quarter.

Asked about the figures on Friday, Ms Stephen-Smith acknowledged performance was not at a standard Canberrans should expect it to be but said the results weren't surprising.

"Obviously, emergency department performance was not where we would like it to be in the second half of last year, and we know Canberrans expect better," she said.

In late-February a range of measures commenced to improve performance at Canberra Hospital's emergency department and Ms Stephen-Smith said this was still being continued during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"At Canberra Hospital the increase in the complexity of emergency department presentations over recent years has had a significant impact on performance," she said.

"A range of measures had been introduced towards late February to work to improve the flow of figures through the emergency department.

"While the hospital has been required to focus on its response to COVID-19 over the last two months, many of these measures continue to be pursued, as we keep a close eye on ED performance."

It comes as elective surgeries are set to resume in Canberra public hospitals from next Tuesday.

This is in line with the national cabinet's decision to lift restrictions on category two and some urgent category three elective surgeries.

"The decision to reinstate elective surgery in a careful and staged approach has been made possible following the success of public health measures implemented in response to COVID-19 and continued low numbers of COVID-19 cases," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

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"Across the public system, we anticipate providing more than 40 additional elective surgeries and scoping procedures next week, with those numbers growing further the following week as additional capacity is brought back online.

"We will closely monitor and review the impact of elective surgery over the next few weeks to ensure it does not compromise the territory's preparedness to meet demand for public hospital services.

"While we would love to conduct even more elective surgeries, we need to ensure we are doing so safely and preserving our Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) supplies. This is to ensure we can protect staff and patients should we experience an outbreak of COVID-19 in the ACT."