ACT Health annual report shows increase in patients waiting for elective surgeries, ED treatment

There were 1364 people who had waited longer than the clinically recommended for an elective surgery last financial year, the annual report from ACT Health has shown.

Authorities had hoped this number would be only 430.

The result was drastically worse than the previous year when 773 patients waited longer than recommended.

Elective surgeries also fell short of the government's target. There were 14,011 surgeries performed through the 2021-22 year but the target was 14,800.

Emergency department treatment times again fell way short of the target. The government's aim was that 90 per cent of patients would spend less than four hours in the department but only 52 per cent of patients had finished their stay in four hours.

The annual report said that staff shortages, high bed occupancy and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the missed targets.

The report said there was a reduction in short-stay beds at Calvary Public Hospital in Bruce as space was taken from the emergency department to create a "red zone" to treat COVID-19 patients. This meant people were forced to stay longer in the department to complete treatment.

High bed occupancy also affected admission times in emergency departments.

Nearly 80 per cent of presentations to ACT emergency departments are classified as category three (urgent) and category four (semi-urgent).

But only 35.7 per cent of urgent patients and 46.2 per cent of semi-urgent patients were treated in the clinically recommended timeframe in 2021-22. This fell way short of the Australian College for Emergency Medicine targets of 75 and 70 per cent.

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The report said work had continued to attempt to improve these times.

"These included strategies for staff recruitment, and reviewing and implementing patient flow, pathways and models of care to streamline service delivery and operations," the report said.

"Improvement strategies are continuously being monitored and adjusted by both hospitals as required."

However, the 2021-22 year performance was a drop on the previous year, where 57 per cent of patients were seen on time.

The ACT consistently has the longest emergency department wait times in the nation.

Authorities have also consistently failed to meet elective surgery targets.

Surgeries have been particularly affected due to COVID. Over winter elective surgeries had to be postponed as the health system experienced extremely high demand.

The system faced a perfect storm over the winter months as there were high numbers of people in hospital and large numbers of staff were off due to COVID-related leave. More than 150 staff, on average, were off on any given day due to illness.

Some surgeries were also suspended during the summer Omicron wave.

"In 2021-22, the ability to achieve the targeted volume of surgeries was constrained by the continued impacts of COVID-19," the report said.

"The reduced availability of the clinical workforce resulted in the suspension of some non-essential elective surgeries in January and February 2022 and slowed delivery of surgeries overall.

"Furthermore, COVID-19 continued to place high levels of pressure on bed availability."

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