Elective surgery waitlists in the ACT have increased by 30 per cent since September 2022, and more than 8,800 Canberrans are waiting for their operations, according to new figures Canberra Health Services (CHS) released under Freedom of Information (FOI) to Canberra Liberals MLA Leanne Castley, Shadow Minister for Health.

“This is utterly disgraceful,” Ms Castley said. “Despite the Labor-Greens government setting a target for only 430 patients to wait longer than clinically recommended, it is not even close to that commitment.”

The ACT Government last year committed an additional $6.7 million in the 2023-24 Budget to achieve 15,500 public elective surgeries in the 2023–24 financial year.

However, the FOI figures show that 7,620 patients are waiting for elective surgery, Ms Castley said; more than 2,200 of these patients (30 per cent) are waiting longer than clinically recommended, up from 23 per cent in 2022.

A government spokesperson, however, said that the 2,289 overdue patients were “overstated in the data”: patients who have surgery as public patients in private hospitals are not removed from the list until information is received from the private provider that their surgery has been performed.

A further 1,233 patients are ‘not ready for care’, due to clinical or personal reasons, Ms Castley observed, bringing the total to 8,853 people on the elective surgery waitlists.  A government spokesperson stated that these patients might not be well enough for surgery, have indicated they are unavailable for personal reasons, or require other interventions before they can have surgery.

Ms Castley said her FOI requested any projections of how completion of the Canberra Hospital’s Critical Services Building (which will open in August) would have on elective surgery waitlists, but no such documents were identified, despite health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith saying the new building would reduce wait lists.

“Because of the Digital Health Record débâcle, it has been some time since CHS has provided complete figures of the numbers of patients waiting for elective surgery,” Ms Castley said.

The Canberra Liberals allege that the electronic medical record system, which went live in 2022, is plagued with problems and is tracking red. The government, however, states that it has improved information sharing, streamlined processes, and made it easier for health workers to look after patients.

“We get something approximating a dashboard which shows waiting lists for patients ‘ready for care’ for particular elective surgeries, which doesn’t show their median wait times, and which introduces a new category of patients who are ‘not ready for care’,” Ms Castley said.

“Exactly how these latest figures relate to previous figures is unclear, but one thing’s for sure, waitlists for elective surgery are continuing to worsen.”

Nevertheless, Ms Stephen-Smith said Canberra Health Services was confident that more than 15,000 elective surgeries would be performed in 2023-24. In the first half of the financial year, more than 7,300 elective surgeries were performed, and operating theatres have had more capacity since October when the refurbished North Canberra Hospital theatres opened, restored after a fire in 2022.

“Elective surgery wait times continue to be a challenge across Australia and a key focus for the ACT Government,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

“Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACT completed a record 15,324 public elective surgeries in the 2020-21 financial year and 14,031 elective surgeries [below the target of 14,800] in the 2021-22 financial year. 

“This is the highest and second highest number of elective surgeries undertaken in a financial year in the Territory respectively.

“In recent times, elective surgery capacity has been affected by the high level of respiratory illness in winter 2022 and the planned reduction in elective surgeries while more than 11,000 team members were trained during the implementation of the Digital Health Record, which went live in November 2022.

“Unfortunately, Calvary Public Hospital Bruce was further impacted by a fire in the operating theatre complex in December 2022, which reduced overall public hospital theatre capacity in the ACT by 25 per cent. This had a significant impact on elective surgery capacity across the Territory during the 2022-23 financial year.

“Despite these challenges, our Territory-wide surgical teams delivered 85 percent of the ACT’s 14,800 elective surgeries target for 2022-23, with 12,640 public elective surgeries performed. Canberra Hospital met its target, and many planned public surgeries were also delivered through our strong partnerships with private hospitals. 

“In the 2023-24 Budget, the ACT Government invested more than $6.7 million to support our commitment to deliver 60,000 elective surgeries over four years to 2024-25, responding to the impacts caused by the operating theatre fires and COVID-19. This builds on the government’s previous significant investments since 2021-22 to deliver more elective surgeries for our community. The impacted theatres at North Canberra Hospital have now been rebuilt with the last three theatres coming back online in October last year, boosting capacity across the ACT.”

Ms Castley, however, argued that “the blowout in elective surgery waitlists” was due to the 12-year delay for the Canberra Hospital expansion, which was “still not complete and three elections late”; and to the ACT Government’s abandonment of its 2020 election promise to build a $21 million elective surgery centre at the University of Canberra.

Cabinet documents from 2011 show that the ACT Government planned to build a new northside sub-acute hospital and redevelop Canberra Hospital by 2021/22, and meet the expected demand for services, the Liberals stated last year.

Local media reported last year that the government abandoned its plans for the UC centre, promised to be built by next year, because feasibility studies showed integration of services was more effective.

“Let’s not forget the Minister also promised at the last election to complete over 60,000 elective surgeries in four years, and it appears they will not meet that target either,” Ms Castley continued.

“Going into the election in October this year, what is clear is that you can’t trust any promises this government makes.

“More and more Canberrans are living in pain and discomfort, while waitlists continue to grow. 38 per cent of urgent urology patients and 64 per cent of semi-urgent orthopaedic surgery patients are now waiting longer than clinically recommended.”

Ms Stephen-Smith said that the ACT Government had several elective surgery initiatives underway to increase activity and support patients awaiting surgery. These include: 

• Working in partnership with private hospitals in the ACT and NSW to conduct surgeries through the Territory Wide Surgical Services Public Private Partnership.
• A partnership with NSW Health for certain elective surgeries to be performed in regional hospitals close by.
• An increased number of Bariatric Surgeries in the public system.
• Temporary expansion of the GLA:D program to support joint patients. The expansion will help patients stay active and mobile while waiting for surgery.

“Elective surgery planning has been and continues to be a collaborative effort across the ACT health system, with our private and public hospitals working together through these challenges and supporting our patients,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.