The bulk of them - 39 new staff - will be employed in the coming 12 months, Health Minister Simon Corbell will announce on Monday.

The numbers include 10 new doctors (four in the coming year), 24 new nurses (all in 2016-17), 18.3 new allied health professionals (full-time equivalent numbers, 10 of them in the coming year) and two new administrative staff (one in the coming year).

Mr Corbell said most of the allied health professionals would be physiotherapists, with doctors currently treating patients who could be seen by other health professionals.

The announcement, with the first tranche to be funded in next week's budget, signals the importance of health as an election battleground.

The government has struggled to fix waiting times at the emergency department, with a Productivity Commission report earlier this year recording Canberra's wait times as the longest in the country.

Recent Australian Medical Association data shows only 48 per cent of emergency department patients in Canberra were seen within recommended time.

Now, the government will spend $29 million over four years to expand staff numbers. The spend in the 2016-17 budget is much less than in future years, at just $3.8 million of the total.

Mr Corbell said the extra staff would "go a long way toward improving the timeliness of care provided at Canberra Hospital, particularly in emergency".

The emergency department has 48.5 full-time equivalent doctors at the moment and 132 full-time equivalent nursing positions.

There are only two allied health professionals in the emergency department at the moment, and with their numbers boosted by 10 full-time equivalents in the coming year and another eight by 2019-20, this is the biggest shift by far in the announcement made by Mr Corbell.

There are 19 administrative staff at the moment.

In February when the Productivity Commission's report was released, showing dismal wait times, Mr Corbell said Canberra's emergency departments had "unprecedented levels of activity", presenting "considerable challenges".

The Canberra and Calvary emergency departments saw an average of 357 people a day in 2014-15, with numbers increasing 22 per cent in five years.

"We need to improve timelines to meet the national access benchmarks," Mr Corbell said in February. "That's my focus as health minister. While we've seen improvements in overall access, we need to continue that trend."

Early last year, he announced an expansion of the emergency department, with work due to finish late this year. The work includes three new ambulance bays, 21 new "treatment spaces" (an increase from 54 to 75).

The government had also put in place reforms to improve "efficiency and access to public health services" in the emergency department this year, he said.

With Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr due to bring down his budget on June 7, the government has already made a series of pre-budget announcements, including: