The Canberra Liberals claim that thousands of outpatients in the ACT are waiting far longer for treatment than clinically recommended, and that outpatient wait times are increasing despite the ACT Government promising to deliver more elective surgeries and improve wait times.

The ACT Government, however, maintain that the data is misleading, and that wait times are decreasing.

Canberra Liberal MLA Leanne Castley, Shadow Minister for Health, said a ministerial briefing obtained under Freedom of Information showed that more than 80 per cent of the patients on the outpatient wait list are overdue: approximately 23,065 patients were overdue for their surgery out of a total of 28,472 who are on the waitlist for certain specialties.

According to the Liberals’ figures:

• 130 urgent (Category 1) patients are waiting an average of 163 days (4 months longer than the clinically recommended 30 days) for ear, nose, and throat surgeries
• More than 1,300 semi-urgent (Category 2) patients are waiting an average of 575 days (more than 6 times the 90 day recommendation) for General Surgery specialty
• 1,250 non-urgent (Category 3) patients are waiting three years (3 times the recommended 365 days) for Orthopaedic surgery

“These figures paint a very bleak picture for any Canberran that may need elective surgery in the future as well as the tens of thousands of Canberrans who will have to live in pain and sometimes debilitating conditions until they are admitted,” Ms Castley said.

“Some of these patients have contacted my office and feel forced to pay for private surgeries or move states, because they do not want to live in pain, sometimes for hundreds of days before they receive their surgery.

“It is tragic that Canberrans are forced to take this drastic action because the Barr-Rattenbury government have failed to address major issues in our public hospitals,” Ms Castley concluded.

ACT Government response

Health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that the Canberra Liberals had conflated the outpatient wait list with the elective surgery list. Not all outpatient appointments with specialists are converted into the elective surgery waiting list, she said (e.g., dermatology).

The figures released through FOI are point in time figures from March 2022, Ms Stephen-Smith stated, when the delta and omicron waves of COVID-19 impacted outpatient appointments, and some clinics had to close or suspend practice, or could not operate at normal numbers.

“We are always concerned when people are having to wait longer than the recommended time for their outpatient appointments,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.

But, she continued, it was important to put these numbers in context.

The ACT public health system provided 130,000 outpatient appointments every year, and 3,500 specialist clinic appointments every week, Ms Stephen-Smith said.

Over the last three years, Canberra Health Services has reduced the wait list from 30,000 long waits for outpatient appointments to 30,000 people in total on the waitlist, Ms Stephen-Smith said.

More patients have made their initial appointments in specialist outpatient clinics to understand whether they need a further appointment with the specialist as an outpatient, whether they require elective surgery, or whether their GP can support them in the community with specialist advice.

However, the number of people coming back to repeat appointments has grown.

“We’re trying to ensure that those people can be transferred back to their GP or to support themselves better in the community, so that more people can get in for those first appointments,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.