The percentage of patients being treated within four hours in the emergency departments of Canberra and Calvary hospitals is so far not meeting the set territory targets for the year, according to national data released on Thursday morning.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said the performance of Canberra's hospitals was on par with comparable hospitals doing similar work but there was more to do to improve emergency department wait times.

The ACT government set a target to treat 65 per cent of patients within the clinically recommended timeframe this year, the lowest target Australia-wide, as hospitals work towards reaching a nationally agreed figure of 90 per cent by 2015.

Calvary came closest in the January to March quarter, treating 63 per cent of patients, an increase of four per cent from the first quarter last year.

But the Canberra Hospital's figures decline from 55 per cent in the first quarter of 2012 to 53 per cent in these latest results, released by the National Health Performance Authority on the MyHospitals website. In the major metropolitan hospital category, which the Canberra and Calvary hospitals fit, the national average of patients treated within four hours for the quarter was 60 per cent.

Quarterly figures published by ACT Health on Thursday show the number of admissions to Canberra's public hospitals continues to grow.

ACT public hospitals admitted 23,216 patients between July last year and March this year, compared to 22,654 in the same period in 2011-12.

The figures show the territory has lost ground in the amount of elective surgeries performed on time for semi-urgent patients, with 61 per cent seen in the clinically recommended time frame of 90 days.

In the December quarter, 69 per cent of semi-urgent patients received surgery on time and the ACT's target is 65 per cent. But the territory is meeting benchmarks for urgent surgery, with 99 per cent of patients admitted within 30 days.

Ms Gallagher said she would investigate what had helped comparable Queensland hospitals improve their emergency room waiting times.

''I think one of the things I do need to do is go and have a look at those hospitals, see what they're doing, see whether they're doing something that we're not doing and look at whether we can use any of the ideas that have turned around their performance so quickly,'' she said.

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson highlighted that the ACT had much lower targets than other jurisdictions.

''Yes, we meet our targets, but in some cases our targets are 35 per cent lower than other jurisdictions, so if you compare results, we're much worse.''

Mr Hanson labelled the quarterly emergency department results ''appalling'' and called for an audit of the emergency department.