14 June 2019

New figures: How long you'll wait at Canberra's emergency departments

| Ian Bushnell
Join the conversation
2

7784 patients arrived by ambulance at hospital EDs during the March quarter. Photo: George Tsotsos.

ACT Health is still struggling with waiting times at its hospital emergency departments, according to the latest March quarterly performance report.

Only 30 per cent of the 15,915 patients requiring urgent attention were treated on time, down 6 per cent on the December quarter, nowhere near the 2018-19 target of 75 per cent.

Overall, 37,107 patients were treated, marginally more than the previous quarter, with 58 per cent leaving the ED within four hours, which was 4 per cent fewer and well below the target of 90 per cent.

It took on average seven minutes for Emergency category patients to be treated, with 72 per cent treated on time, 4 per cent fewer than the previous quarter and below the target of 80 per cent but waiting times for other patients were longer than the December figures and quite a distance from the ED targets.

Urgent and Semi-Urgent patients on average had waits of more than an hour, 61 minutes and 67 minutes respectively, before being treated, while non-urgent cases took 52 minutes to be treated.

Only 46 per cent of Semi-Urgent patients were treated on time, down 5 per cent but 80 per cent of Non-Urgent cases were, although even these were 4 per cent fewer than the previous quarter.

7784 patients arrived by ambulance at hospital EDs.

Patients at the Nurse-led Walk-in Centres, designed to ease the burden at EDs, also had to wait longer, with the median times up two minutes. The centres saw 15,679 patients, 268 fewer than the December quarter.

There were 5522 patients at Tuggeranong, with 7 per cent redirected to the ED, 5716 at Belconnen (4 per cent) and 4673 at Gungahlin (6 per cent).

It took 27 minutes on average to be treated at Tuggeranong, 17 minutes at Belconnen and 11 minutes at Gungahlin.

The number of overdue patients waiting for elective surgery jumped by 38 per cent to 712, 196 more than the December quarter, but there were 120 fewer added to the waiting list at 3483.

Fewer procedures were performed than the previous quarter, with 3154 completed, a fall of 11 per cent, or 397.

Median wait times to surgery for Urgent, Category 1 patients, which should be treated within 30 days, was steady at 18 days, with Semi-Urgent, Category 2 (within 90 days) at 58 days (4 per cent) and Non-Urgent, Category 3 (within 365 days) at 218 (-3 per cent).

There were 5216 patients waiting for their elective surgery, up 3 per cent.

 

Join the conversation

2
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Worse cases:
1) stomach bleed (dangerously low BP) over and hour
2) finger sliced to bone base to near tip (vehicular accident) (admitted.. waited 4 days for surgeon)

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.