Jo has been told she needs urgent major surgery, so why is she waiting months?

But fast forward to May and Ms Plunkett is still waiting.

Meanwhile, the tumour - which already involves her bowel - has possibly started to grow onto her bladder.

It has left her in excruciating pain, largely unable to work and forced to wear maternity clothes.

She is classified as a category one urgent patient, which means the clinically appropriate wait for surgery is a maximum of 30 days.

But based on her current date for surgery she will be kept waiting for 90 days.

While doctors think, based on blood tests, her tumour is probably not cancerous, she said they can't be certain.

Waiting for surgery is nothing new for Canberrans, with the territory consistently ranking poorly in wait times on a national level.

The latest data showed the median wait time for gynaecological surgery was between 15 days and 141 days, depending on the urgency category.

An ACT Health Directorate spokeswoman said the territory continued to experience growth in demand for emergency and elective surgery, noting extra government funding commitments.

She said there had been a significant improvement of category 1 patients receiving their surgery on time in 2018-19 compared with previous years.

"This remains a Government and hospital priority," she said.

Ms Plunkett says she is worried the tumor, which began on her ovaries, is growing every day, making her condition more complex and dangerous as it involves more organs.

She says she is happy with her doctors but angry about deficiencies in the health system.

She was admitted to Calvary Public Hospital on March 24 and told she would have urgent surgery in Sydney as it was too complex to be completed locally. However when Sydney determined it was likely her tumour was not cancerous she was referred back to Canberra and eventually given a surgery date of June 20.

She was told resourcing difficulties - including access to operating theatres and doctors' availability - meant it could not be earlier

"It's heartbreaking and life ruining," she said.

"I'm usually a happy and jovial, very active person and I'm not anymore.

"I was in size 10 jeans when I went into hospital that day. I can now get size 14 jeans on but they're still too tight. So I'm wearing maternity pants."

Ms Plunkett has emailed Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris a number of times, and has only received a response from her staff saying ACT Health would be in contact. She says ACT Health has never contacted her.

"We need our urgent surgery when we're told we're going to get it," she said.

"Give hospitals the resources that they need."

Calvary Hospital said it was in contact with Ms Plunkett but did not provide a response to a number of questions, citing patient confidentiality.

However, after the hospital was contacted by The Canberra Times Ms Plunkett said she was contacted on Thursday afternoon by a senior executive and told her surgery was going to be moved to next week.