Emergency department wait time in Canberra more than double the national average, AIHW report shows

The median wait time in the territory's emergency departments in 2021-22 was 47 minutes while the national average was only 20 minutes.

Wait times were also significantly higher than NSW where the median wait time was 14 minutes, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's latest report has shown.

Western Australia had the second longest wait time at 40 minutes, followed by Tasmania at 31 minutes and the Northern Territory at 29 minutes.

Queensland's median was 18 minutes, Victoria's was 22 minutes and South Australia's was 26 minutes.

These figures are based on the time within which 50 per cent of patients are seen. When the 90^th percentile is taken into consideration - this being the time within which 90 per cent of patients are seen - the ACT's performance is even worse.

The 90^th percentile wait time for the ACT was 203 minutes. The national average was only 117 minutes and in NSW this was only 89 minutes.

This was also a huge increase on the previous year when it was 181 minutes for the ACT.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith was asked about the ACT having the worst wait times in question time last month, but she said comparing the ACT was other jurisdictions was not an accurate comparison.

"When you compare jurisdiction by jurisdiction it is not an accurate comparison. It is certainly not an apples with apples comparison," she said.

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Ms Stephen-Smith said Canberra hospitals actually performed well compared to similar hospitals.

Despite an increase in the waiting times, the ACT has had the largest drop in the number of emergency department presentations over the past year.

There was a 6.5 per cent drop in the number of presentations to the territory's emergency departments in the last financial year.

The institute's data showed there were more than 143,000 presentations in the 2021-22 year, down from more than 153,000 presented in 2020-21.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare also released a report on elective surgeries.

This showed the ACT completed just over 14,000 elective surgeries last year, a figure previously confirmed by ACT Health.

On average, people receiving elective surgery in the ACT waited 43 days, which was slightly higher than the national average of 40 days.

For the 90^th percentile there was a wait time of 281 days. This was below the national average of 323 days.

Nationally, the number of elective surgeries fell to its lowest level in more than a decade due to COVID-related disruptions.

"In 2021-22, public hospitals performed 623,000 elective surgeries, 131,600 (17 per cent) fewer compared to the previous year," Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spokesman Adrian Webster said.

"This followed periodic suspensions of lower-urgency elective surgery starting from March 2020, which have aimed to help ensure the health system maintains adequate capacity during the pandemic."

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