Canberra Health Services told people with non-life threatening injuries on Wednesday to avoid the emergency department and seek care elsewhere.

CHS chief operating officer Cathie O'Neill expects the intense pressure at the hospital to continue for months.

"Our hospitals are currently experiencing bed block every day with a large number of patients requiring longer hospital stays," she said.

"This causes further delays in the emergency department as patients who need to be admitted might have to wait longer for a bed to become available.

"We expect to continue to experience high demand and bed pressures in coming months."

A spike in the number of patients, both with COVID and with other illnesses, has increased pressure on the Canberra health system. On top of that, staff shortages (also, at least partly, caused by increased illnesses) has also ramped up the pressure.

The ACT recorded more than 1000 new COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day on Thursday.

The 1134 new cases in the latest reporting period also brought the total number of infections to over 150,000 since the pandemic began.

There are 88 people being treated in ACT hospitals, one of whom requires treatment in an intensive care unit but is not ventilated.

Ms O'Neill said the hospitals were seeing high numbers of patients, while facing workforce challenges with many team members away with COVID-19 or other illnesses.

"We're not unique in this - every hospital in Australia is experiencing these challenges. Our triage process in the ED means that the most urgent patients are seen first, so those whose condition is less urgent will experience longer waits," she said.

"If you need to come to the emergency department please do so, but if your need for care is not urgent, please consider an alternative. And don't forget our COVID Walk-in Clinic is there for those who have COVID-19."

As winter has deepened and illnesses increased, nurses have been switched to cover at the emergency department but this transfer has not alleviated pressure enough.

The Canberra Health Services website was also undergoing maintenance on Wednesday night so the estimated wait times couldn't be accessed until 12am on Thursday.

The website was functioning properly later in the day, with non-critical patients waiting around three hours to be treated.

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Canberra Health Services outlined options for those who need urgent but non-life-threatening care: access to walk-in centres, GPs, Healthdirect on 1800 022 222, CALMS on 1300 422 567 or the National Home Doctor Service on 13 74 25.

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