An audit report released on Thursday investigating the government's management of healthcare for people living with serious and continuing illness found there had been lost opportunities to improve health outcomes.

The report highlighted four commitments made by the government between 2013 and 2017 to improve healthcare for people with chronic illnesses.

"These four commitments have not been effective in expressing improvement priorities, or in driving or demonstrating improvements to the care of people living with serious and continuing illness in the ACT," Auditor-General Michael Harris said.

"The ACT Health Directorate has not established an effective strategic direction for the improvement of care through these commitments."

Mr Harris acknowledged there had been significant structural changes within ACT government health departments, but said improving the management of chronic conditions had not been given the priority the commitments envisaged.

"None of the commitments considered in this audit have added significant value to the ACT community," he said.

The audit report made five recommendations for improvement, including recommendations aimed at addressing the national strategic framework for chronic conditions and working in partnership.

Among the commitments made by the ACT government was the ACT Chronic Conditions Strategy - Improving Care and Support 2013-2018.

But the audit found the health directorate failed to develop an effective strategic direction to improve the management of chronic conditions in that period.

"The [strategy] represented a set of universal, high-level aspirations and did not identify ACT-specific deliverables, priorities for improvement or gaps in service provision," the report read.

"No further work was completed to articulate specific priorities and actions to advance the strategy beyond being a high-level aspiration."

It said ACT Health was still yet to respond to a national strategic framework for chronic conditions, three years after it was released.

The audit found a co-ordinating committee for primary healthcare and chronic conditions struggled to fill its purpose and was not given effective support from ACT Health.

"The lack of engagement by the ACT Health Directorate undermined the committee's authority and the value of collaboration between external partners and the ACT Health Directorate," the report read.

ACT Health and Canberra Health Services said they accepted the report's recommendations.

But they noted the audit was focused on governance and not the wide range of services they delivered for people with chronic conditions in the ACT.