Waiting times in ACT hospital emergency departments have deteriorated with just over half of patients seen within clinically-appropriate time frames in 2012-13.
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ACT Health's annual report shows that 51 per cent of emergency department patients were seen on time last financial year, down from 55 per cent in 2011-12. The target set for 2012-13 was 70 per cent.
The report was released on Thursday afternoon after Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher had earlier opened an extension to the Canberra Hospital's emergency department. The report shows that all category one patients requiring resuscitation were seen immediately. But only 74 per cent of category two patients were seen within a 10-minute target.
More than 40 per cent of category three patients were seen within 30 minutes and 46 per cent of category four patients within one hour. But the hospitals easily exceeded their target of seeing at least 70 per cent of category five patients within two hours.
Speaking at the opening of the emergency department extension, Ms Gallagher said a new ED would eventually be needed at the Canberra Hospital. ''Ideally, we'd love a brand-new purpose-built emergency department and that will come in time,'' she said. "But in the meantime this is presenting us with extra space to deal with patients and hopefully allow us to get patients through and either admitted to hospital or out and discharged out into the community sooner.''
The extension will add seven treatment spaces and will come online during the next fortnight.
Extra space for more beds has also been built upstairs from the emergency department in the hospital's intensive care unit.
Ms Gallagher said the emergency department was still in the midst of its traditional winter busy period and there had been more than 200 patient presentations on some days during the past week.
"We're not seeing any easing at this point of time, so we're not seeing the end of that winter rush,'' she said.
"The hospital's still very, very busy - running 96, 97 per cent bed occupancy. We're doing everything to look at how we can alleviate some of that pressure.''
Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson said Canberrans were being forced to wait longer than other Australians for emergency department treatment.
"This further deterioration in our emergency waiting times is of great concern and will mean that Canberrans will be waiting longer for emergency treatment than anybody else in the nation,'' he said.
Mr Hanson called for an Auditor-General's inquiry into emergency department performance.
The annual report also revealed the ACT Health Directorate had lifted its bed occupancy target for 2013-14 from 85 per cent to 90 per cent. The 85 per cent target is designed to ensure that hospitals operate efficiently and have adequate surge capacity during busy periods. The report said improvements to hospital processes and infrastructure would allow the target to be reset later at 85 per cent.
The report found that the public health system had exceeded elective surgery targets with 11,579 procedures performed. It also met or exceeded targets for ensuring radiotherapy patients began treatment within clinically-appropriate time frames.
The hospital extension was paid for with $3.9 million in federal funding and $3.6 million from the ACT government. Ms Gallagher and the new federal Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash jointly presided at the opening of the hospital extension.
