ACT quarterly health report shows just over half of emergency department presentations seen on time

But the latest figures released in ACT Health's quarterly performance report do not reflect the workforce shortages that were exacerbated during the Omicron peak.

The report showed that in the period from October to December 2021, there were 35,252 presentations to emergency departments in the ACT public health system.

Of those patients, 52.9 per cent had started treatment on time by their triage category but only 39.9 per cent of urgent patients had started treatment on time.

There were 3556 elective surgeries completed over the period, which was down 2.6 per cent on the previous quarter. There were 4203 additions to the elective surgery waitlist and there were 1110 outpatients waiting for overdue elective surgeries.

There were almost 160,000 COVID PCR tests provided by ACT public health services over the three months, which was 14.4 per cent higher than the previous quarter.

This reflects the surge in test demand at the start of the Omicron wave and included more than 17,000 tests at the Mitchell testing centre, which only opened on December 18.

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Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she expected the next report, which would be from January to March, would reflect the staff shortages that have plagued the system over the first months of 2022.

"The data from this period reflects the pressure the health system was under, particularly in terms of workforce availability, during periods of lockdown and significant public health and social measures arising from the Delta strain and emerging Omicron strain responses," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"Unfortunately, we are anticipating that these system-wide challenges will be reflected in the performance statistics for the third quarter of 2021-22 (January-March 2022), which will capture the scale of impact caused by the Omicron outbreak.

"The ACT government is focused on collaborating to deliver innovative solutions that improve patient experience and support our workforce."

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