Rachel Stephen-Smith says Canberra Health Services outpatient waitlist has improved

Newly released documents have shown people had been forced to wait for years for appointments and treatments as outpatients in the ACT's health system.

Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley, who obtained the list under freedom of information, said it showed more than 23,000 people were overdue for their appointments or treatment.

"This government is not doing enough to prioritise the health of Canberrans," she said.

One waiting list for general surgery showed 92.4 per cent, or 1332, of category two outpatients were overdue with an average waiting time of 575 days. The recommended timeframe for category two patients is within 90 days.

However, Ms Stephen-Smith said the outpatient waiting list had drastically reduced over recent years. She said the list provided to Ms Castley was a point-in-time data and reflected the list as of March 28, 2022.

"Our system provides around 130,000 outpatient appointments every year and there's been significant improvements in the waitlist despite all of the challenges of COVID-19," she said.

"Over the last three years there's been a reduction in the waitlist. There used to be about 30,000 people who were long waits for outpatient appointments, now we have 30,000 people in total on the waitlist.

"Of course we are always concerned when people are having to wait longer than the recommended time for their outpatient appointments."

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Outpatients are those who receive treatment at a hospital without staying there overnight.

Ms Stephen-Smith said outpatients did not always require elective surgery and this was an important distinction. But she said Canberra Health Services was working hard to improve the list.

"Canberra Health Services has been working very hard over the last few years to ensure that more initial appointments can be made in our specialist outpatient clinics, so really trying to ensure that balance between new appointments and repeat appointments," she said.

"I know that we have some particular specialities where we do have a very long wait still and we have got some Canberrans who have been waiting an extended period of time for that first appointment with a specialist and that is very, very distressing and that is why Canberra Health Services is doing so much work."

Canberra Health Services chief operating officer Cathie O'Neill said many people on the waiting list had been referred to multiple providers and may have chosen to seek treatment elsewhere.

"We don't shy away from that fact we've still got a lot of work to do, and for those patients that are waiting we understand very much that's it's very distressing and some of them are having quite life-limiting conditions," she said.

"We have many people on our waiting list that have actually been referred to multiple providers, they might have chosen to get their treatment in Sydney but they're still sitting on our waiting list or they get offered an appointment and for whatever reason they're unable to make that appointment."

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