The ACT Health Directorate (ACTHD) and Canberra Health Services (CHS) are “utterly confused” how many Canberrans use nurse-led walk-in centres, the Canberra Liberals claim.

Over the nine months between 1 July 2023 and 31 March 2024, ACTHD reported 93,246 visits, whereas CHS (using the Digital Health Record) counted 104,533 – a difference of more than 11,000, or 12 per cent, according to emails that Leanne Castley, Shadow Minister for Health, obtained under Freedom of Information.

The ACT Government attributes the differences to the use of different data and purposes.

The discrepancy apparently arose when health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith’s office requested the data from both directorates in preparation for an Assembly debate on Walk-in Centres on 11 April. CHS’ Director of Government Relations (frustratedly, according to Ms Castley) suggested that the minister source data from one directorate to avoid conflicting figures.

The Director of Government Relations wrote: “Noting there is different data sets flying around, perhaps it would be beneficial for the Office to seek the data from one directorate and not both? … It is not efficient for us to do work and get this info for ACTDH to come over the top and provide something different.”

“This was yet another example of Labor’s oversight of Walk-in Centres being a shambles,” Ms Castley said.

An ACT Government spokesperson responded: “The figures for the number of presentations at Walk-in Centres differ as they were pulled from different systems which are used for different purposes.”

ACTHD’s figures are from a data repository from the non-admitted patient collection, used for funding reports, while CHS’s data comes from a clinical system used for operational purposes.

ACTHD counts only patients who received a service, whereas CHS includes all presentations, such as those returning for results or who left without being seen.

Additionally, ACTHD’s data covers July 2023 to March 2024, whereas CHS covers 1 July 2023 to 9 April 2024.

Ms Castley said it was telling that, in the end, neither the Minister for Health, nor for Population Health, Emma Davidson, used either throughput figure in the Assembly debate.

“It is clear the Minister’s credibility on Walk-in Centres is in tatters, and it is incomprehensible that she is unable or unwilling to provide reliable information to Canberrans about how much the centres cost, how many people are using them, and how many patients are then referred elsewhere.

“The huge divergence in walk-in Centre figures also appears to be another case of the Digital Health Record data not being reliable.

“There has been no published data on Walk-in Centre’s in CHS’ Quarterly Performance Reports for nearly two years due to the ongoing debacle with the DHR.

“This latest débâcle follows recent revelations exposed by the Canberra Liberals that the Minister tried to put doctors into Walk-in Centres but failed, and then claimed it was the Liberals who didn’t support the nurse-led model.

“Previous to that, the ACT Government also claimed Walk-in Centres cost $110 per presentation, whereas official emails show the cost is close to $200; and since late 2022, Walk-in Centres don’t keep figures on how many patients they refer to emergency departments – a key measure of their effectiveness.”