Canberrans are in the dark about the true performance of the territory's emergency departments, as ACT Health admitted the first figures released since an inquiry into health data was announced are not accurate.
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Questions put to ACT Health about some of the data have revealed there are still issues with data collection at Canberra hospitals.
Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said she had no confidence in the figures, claiming the reality could be much worse.
The most recent figures detailing the performance of Canberra's emergency departments showed a slight overall improvement on treatment times from 2015/16, while the most urgent triage categories, one and two, were down.
The figures - which detail the percentage of emergency department patients treated in clinically appropriate timeframes - showed one per cent of category one resuscitation patients at Canberra Hospital and two per cent at Calvary Public were not see immediately.
That is in contrast to national figures which showed every state and territory, except the ACT which did not provide data, treated all category one patients immediately in 2015/16.
But when questioned why all resuscitation patients were not treated immediately, ACT Health said all category one patients in the ACT were actually seen on time, and delays in filling out paperwork due to clinical demands resulted in incorrect figures in the annual report.
The figures missed targets for all categories except for "non-urgent patients", who were seen within 120 minutes 92 per cent of the time.
"Emergency" patients were seen within 10 minutes 77 per cent of the time, while only 50 per cent of "urgent" patients were seen within 30 minutes and 64 per cent of "semi-urgent" patients within an hour.
It's the first data publicly released since a review into ACT health data collection processes was ordered in February.
That review - being completed by KPMG - is due to be completed in March 2018.
Ms Dunne said the government had an "incredibly poor" track record of reducing emergency department times.
"Of course, this may be due to a culture of data collection that lacks rigour and integrity," she said.
"This Government has come under fire in previous years for manipulating official figures on waiting times; this means any attempt to reduce waiting times will be based on inaccurate information and will produce ineffective results.
"Based on the Government's record, I am not convinced that the latest figures – worrying as they are – are accurate. It is possible that they are much worse."
ACT was the only state or territory not to submit data to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare last year due to concerns over accuracy of the data, and is likely not to do so again this year.
The last time the ACT submitted data it was rated as the worst performing emergency departments in the country for urgent patients.
Data issues have plagued ACT Health for years, with almost 12,000 patient records doctored between 2009 and 2012 to make the emergency department look better.
While last year the government was forced to correct misleading data on the performance of Canberra's median wait times at emergency departments during July-December 2013.
An ACT Health spokesman said despite significant increase in demand for services, overall timeliness improved and there had been been significant reform of the ED in the last two years 2016-17
He said there had been significant reform of the ED in the past two years, with a key target going forward reducing the time to be seen for emergency triage categories two to four.
The spokesman said nine new beds opened at Canberra Hospital's Emergency Department in July, and the following year would see recruitment of nurses and adjusted rosters to meet afternoon and evening demand.
