Wait times in the territory's emergency departments for 2020-21 are drastically higher than the national averages and have even increased on the previous year.

The median waiting time for the ACT's emergency departments was 48 minutes - this is equivalent to the time within which 50 per cent of patients are seen.

The national median was less than half at 18 minutes, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's latest report showed.

The ACT's waiting time was far higher than NSW, where the median wait time was 14 minutes. The second worst performing jurisdiction was Western Australia but its wait time was still much lower than the ACT at 31 minutes.

ACT's wait time was also higher than last year - in 2019-20 it was 44 minutes.

Only 48 per cent of patients in the ACT were seen on time in 2020-21.

Nationally, 71 per cent of patients were seen on time. NSW had the highest proportion of patients seen on time at 79 per cent.

ACT's poor wait times are even more stark when the 90^th percentile waiting time is taken into consideration - this being the time within which 90 per cent of patients were seen.

The 90^th percentile wait time for the ACT was 181 minutes - a spike from 167 minutes in the last financial year. The national average is 102 minutes. The shortest wait time was Queensland at 80 minutes and the second longest was South Australia at 140 minutes.

The annual report also showed how the ACT's performance had slipped over the past five years. In 2016-17 the median waiting time for Canberra's emergency departments was 30 minutes and the 90^th percentile time was 116 minutes.

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Five years ago, 62 per cent of emergency department patients in Canberra were seen on time.

It came after recent data revealed the ACT missed key elective surgery targets last financial year. The ACT had aimed to complete more than 16,000 elective surgeries last financial year but there were only 15,324 delivered, ACT Health's annual report for 2020-21 showed.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's annual report on emergency department care showed presentations to public emergency departments rebounded nationally in 2019-20, following a decline in the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 8.8 million emergency department presentations last year. Part of the increase was due to clinics being set up across the country to assess people who may been infected with COVID-19.

"Following steady annual growth of 3.2 per cent between 2014-15 and 2018-19, and a dip of 1.4 per cent in 2019-20, presentations to public hospital emergency departments increased by 6.9 per cent in 2020-21. This brings the growth back on trend with the pre-pandemic years," AIHW spokesman Dr Adrian Webster said.

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