ACT emergency department presentations fall over COVID, but wait times still a struggle

ACT Health has released two quarterly performance reports, which span the time from April to June and July to September.

There were 40,548 emergency department presentations over April to June across Canberra's public hospitals, which was a 7.6 per cent jump on the previous year. However, there was a huge spike in waiting times over the quarter.

Only 42.2 per cent of patients were seen on time over the quarter, down from 48.1 per cent in the previous three month period.

But only 28.8 per cent of urgent patients were seen on time and the median wait time for the triage category was 73 minutes. This was up from 57 minutes in the previous quarter.

Semi-urgent patients had a median wait time of 88 minutes and only 37.6 per cent were seen on time.

Wait times improved over July and September, however, there was a drop in the number of presentations at 35,513.

Forty-nine per cent of people were seen on time.

Urgent patients also had to wait less time for treatment. The median wait time was 54 minutes, a fall of 26 per cent, and 34.5 per cent were seen on time.

While the July to September figures were an improvement on the previous quarter, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the COVID outbreak and response made it difficult to make comparison between the quarters.

She praised the high in-patient satisfaction rates, with 91 per cent of surveyed patients conveying positive feedback, however, reaffirmed there was more to do.

"Pleasingly, we continue to have very high in-patient satisfaction rates across the public health system, which is a credit to the ongoing dedication, professionalism and compassion of our health professionals who work hard every day to care for Canberrans," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"Nevertheless, it is clear that there remain some areas where we have more work to do, particularly in regard to the timeliness of emergency department across both hospitals."

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Ms Stephen-Smith pointed to the fact $23 million was set aside in the recent budget for the Canberra Hospital's emergency department and a further $39 million for emergency surgery capacity.

Over July to September there was a 32.3 per cent drop, from 20,509 to 13,877, on the previous quarter in the number of presentations to the nurse-led walk-in centres.

While this was due to less presentations during the lockdown, other factors included the Weston Creek walk-in centre being repurposed as a temporary COVID testing site and the redeployment of staff from the inner north centre to help with the COVID response.

The quarterly reports are often not released together, but Ms Stephen-Smith said the COVID pandemic delayed the April to June report.

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