Medical bungles and other litigation cost ACT Health more than $5.7million in payouts last financial year.
The department racked up a further $1.8 million bill in legal expenses, although the ACT Government solicitor provided $914,500 of those costs free of charge.
Twenty of the 22 claims were settled out of court.
But the payouts jumped $1.1million on the 2007-2008 total of $4.6 million.
Payments were made for litigated medical negligence, public liability, and employment matters excluding workers compensation.
An ACT Health spokesman said, ''The expenditure for this financial year to the end of April 2009 for all compensation payments outsourced or contracted out within ACT Health is $5,694,968.30.''
This amount was almost 75 per cent of all compensations made by the Government. The Government's total spend on litigation was $7.479million.
A spokesman for acting Health Minister Simon Corbell said he could not provide details on the claims as the settlements included a confidentiality provision.
''There were financial settlements for employee relations issues, medical malpractice, cost of repairs to ACT Health buildings resulting from accidents and damage to public property, public liability claims and resolution of a contract issue with a vendor,'' he said.
But the lowest payout was for damage to property and cost the ACT Government $2900. Shadow Health Minister Jeremy Hanson said over 10 years the Government would be losing $50 million.
''In any context it's a lot of money and we want that spent on primary services,'' Mr Hanson said.
He said without detail it was difficult to pinpoint the problem and possible solutions.
''Some of it is employment related ... The busier you are, the more under-resourced you are, the more likely mistakes will happen.''
The budgeted allocation for ACT Health legal expenses in 2009-10 is $1.5million.
The Federal Health Department's State of our Public Hospitals Report for 2007-08, issued this week, found there was room for a lot of improvement in the territory's public hospitals.
The report said Canberrans and Tasmanian residents waited longest for elective surgery and emergency treatment in public hospitals.
Canberrans have the longest wait for elective surgery in Australia, on average they wait for 72 days.
The ACT also trailed behind other states in emergency department waiting times.
The ACT reported the second highest median waiting time in Australia, double that of NSW patients who, on average, waited 20 minutes.
Only 58 per cent of ACT patients presenting to the emergency department were seen within recommended timeframes, the second worst result in Australia.
In NSW, 76 per cent of patients were seen within recommended triage times.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times