The latest report card on the public health system shows 5247 elective surgery operations were performed in the year to December, 551 more than the previous year.

Elective surgery waiting times remained steady for most serious cases and dropped for less urgent Category2 and Category3 patients.

ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher said there was a drop of 30 per cent in the number of people waiting more than a year for elective surgery.

She said the report showed emergency department waiting times for the most urgent cases (Category1 and Category2 patients) continued to meet targets.

The report also showed the average eight-month waiting time for public dental services was considerably better than the targeted 12 months.

The ACT's childhood immunisation rates remained above the national target.

Despite the good news, Ms Gallagher acknowledged the ACT Health system still harboured shortcomings that required attention.

''In particular, waiting times for less urgent emergency department patients are below target, access block remains around 28 per cent, which is above the target of 25 per cent, and waiting times for breast screening services are higher than the national standard,'' Ms Gallagher said.

''We will continue to work with clinicians to develop additional initiatives to improve emergency department waiting times and access block performance.

''These initiatives include another 25 beds at the Canberra Hospital. We are also developing a new surgical assessment and planning unit which will provide quicker transfer of surgical patients out of the emergency department.''

Despite Ms Gallagher's assurances, the Opposition was not impressed by the results. Liberal health spokesman Jeremy Hanson labelled the report ''dismal''.

''If you look at the detail, there's some terrible results in terms of elective surgery, our emergency departments are still failing in the urgent and semi-urgent category, [and] our bed occupancy rate is still dangerous and so on,'' Mr Hanson said.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times