Many outpatients still overdue for appointments at Canberra Health Services

More than 85 per cent of category one outpatients for general surgery at Canberra Health Services were overdue for their appointments, figures from October show.

The average wait time for appointments for those outpatients was 213 days, when the recommended time frame for category one patients is supposed to be only 30 days.

More than 87 per cent of category one outpatients were overdue for ear, nose and throat appointments and more than 83 per cent were overdue for neurosurgery appointments.

For gastroenterology, 96 per cent of urgent outpatients were overdue for their appointments. The recommended time frame for urgent outpatients is 14 days but people waited on average 87 days.

Outpatients are those who receive treatment or have an appointment within Canberra Health Services without staying overnight in a hospital. Wait lists are point-in-time data.

Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley has expressed concern at the latest wait list figures, saying it showed the situation had worsened.

Ms Castley first aired concerns over outpatient wait lists last month, after she obtained figures under freedom of information. These figures were from March last year but last week the government provided the wait list for outpatient appointments from October.

The opposition and the government have chosen to highlight different elements of the October figures.

An analysis conducted by Ms Castley's office said the number of overdue outpatients increased from 23,065 in March to 24,972 in October.

The figures provided by Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith do not specify the exact number of overdue patients, rather it includes the total number of patients waiting and the percentage of patients who have waited longer than recommended for their appointments.

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Ms Castley's analysis calculated the number of overdue patients based on the percentage given and the total number of outpatients for each category.

"I'm astounded the minister thinks the ACT is doing better on outpatient waiting times when the situation is clearly getting worse," Ms Castley said.

"The number of patients not seen within clinically recommended time frames increased by 2.5 per cent in seven months - which is not 'doing better'."

However, when Ms Stephen-Smith tabled the figures in the Legislative Assembly she said it showed there was a decrease in the number of overdue outpatients down from 76 in March to 43. She acknowledged this was still too high and more work was needed.

The Health Minister also pointed to marginal decreases in waiting times in ear nose and throat, general surgery, orthopaedic surgery, urology, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology and neurology.

Ms Stephen-Smith also said there had been improvements over the past three years, saying there used to be about 30,000 people who were overdue for appointments but now there was only 30,000 people in total on the wait list.

She said things that affected the wait lists included providing services to the surrounding NSW region, high out-of-pocket costs for private specialists and lower numbers of general practitioners.

"We have lower number of GPs and we do see some inappropriate referrals from GPs as well and sometimes we're seeing a higher level of complexity as well," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"Some of these issues have driven demand in our public health services but we are working through how to address that."

Ms Stephen-Smith said the list also included people who Canberra Health Services had attempted to contact, people who had received treatment elsewhere and people who had been inappropriately referred.

Authorities are unable to provide more up-to-date figures on outpatient wait lists at this stage as methods of reporting have changed through the government's new digital health record.

Ms Stephen-Smith has said she would release more recent figures by May.

The Health Minister said in a statement to The Canberra Times on Wednesday that work was being undertaken to reduce the number and support those waiting for a specialist appointment.

"Several strategies are being implemented to reduce outpatient waiting times. These include the proactive recruitment of specialists, ensuring NSW patients are seen locally where possible, implementation of the new digital health record, introduction and expansion of nurse-led and allied health clinics and building better integrated models of care in the community and across the health system," she said.

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