Canberra's hospitals have been wracked with cases of the flu amid reports of standing room only in emergency rooms and corridors lined with beds.
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In the past week, an average of 250 people a day have been presenting at the Canberra Hospital emergency room, with about 180 at Calvary in the same period.
Canberra Liberals politician James Milligan this week told the Legislative Assembly a constituent arrived to an almost full emergency department at 3pm on August 8.
She waited for four hours before being escorted to acute care, Mr Milligan said.
The corridor was lined with patients on trolleys, some forced to wait until 11pm or later to receive medical attention.
At 8pm a nurse allegedly told the constituent it was "standing room only" in emergency.
When she left after midnight, she saw the corridor was still lined with patients lying on trolleys.
Another patient who contacted Fairfax Media said the emergency room was also standing room only on July 31.
He had to wait 10 hours to be given the all-clear, despite being given an emergency referral from his GP for suspected appendicitis.
The triage nurse had told him he would be "fast-tracked" given he might need emergency surgery.
But after he was moved to the fast track area, he had to wait outside in the corridor as there were no seats available.
"There were patients lying in the corridors and very ill people standing - having to vomit into those bags without a seat or even any support," he said.
Health minister Meegan Fitzharris rejected that the recently expanded emergency room was "standing room only".
"We know that we see every winter an increase in presentations to all emergency departments in all hospitals around the country," Ms Fitzharris told the Assembly.
"What we are seeing at the moment is that there has been an increase in presentations to Canberra Hospital emergency department, as there has been a smaller increase in presentations to the Calvary ED."
Australia is in the grips of the worst influenza outbreak in recent years.
As of August 16, the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing said there had been more than 75,000 laboratory confirmed cases of the flu, including 880 in the ACT.
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ACT health's influenza report dated July 28 showed flu reports had increased by 46 per cent on the five-year average.
Eighty two per cent of ACT cases are influenza A while 17 per cent were influenza B. Four people had been infected with both strains.
Between June 1 and August 15, there were more than 2800 presentations with flu-like symptoms to ACT public emergency departments.
But clinical director for the Emergency Department at the Canberra Hospital Dr Gregory Hollis said it was not flu that clogged up the emergency room.
He said the emergency department was having "flow" problems, with a nine per cent rise in presentations in the past year and a problem getting in-patient beds.
"In July I'm told there were 23 occurrences of patients locations being recorded as in the corridor," Dr Hollis said.
"The usual cause of patients being on trolleys in the corridor is when we're having trouble accessing in-patient beds for emergency department patients that require admission."
He said the high presentation rates were "somewhat difficult" to explain, but the Canberra Hospital emergency room often picked up northside patients who should go to Calvary or people from across the border.
"I would encourage the community to go to their closest emergency department particularly at this peak time," Dr Hollis said.
Opposition Health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said the ACT government managed the hospital "as an afterthought".
"I commend hospital staff for their constant professionalism in the light of poor ministerial oversight and government provision," Mrs Dunne said.
Ms Fitzharris told the Assembly 34 extra inpatient beds had been opened under the winter bed management plan with two extra beds in the intensive care unit since the start of August.
Nine extra emergency beds opened since the expansion finished in July, she said.
"Additional nurses have been recruited in paediatrics, as well as permanent and casual positions in the nursing and midwifery relief pool," Ms Fitzharris said,
"All staff across ACT Health have received the flu vaccination, which has seen nearly 3600 staff vaccinated as of August 14.
"Ward services have adjusted wardsperson rosters to meet afternoon and evening demand through ED and medical imaging, adding more hospital assistants to clean beds as they turn over and maintain medical stock levels.
"And there is increased afternoon and evening availability of the central equipment courier for transporting items of medication to and from pharmacy and pathology."
Ms Fitzharris said the government would soon actively encourage people to see their GP or attend a nurse walk-in centre early, if they felt they were suffering from a cold or flu that could potentially get worse.
