Canberra's public health system is still struggling to keep up with long elective surgery waiting lists, with nearly one-third of people on the list overdue, the latest figures show.
There are 2289 patients overdue for elective surgery, with those needing gynaecological, orthopaedic and plastic surgery facing among the longest waiting times.
More than 7600 are on the waiting list and ready for their surgery. Of those, 30 per cent are waiting longer than clinically recommended for surgery.
More than half of category two patients, those needing surgery within 90 days, are overdue for surgery. More than 70 per cent of category two patients on the plastic surgery wait list are overdue and 64 per cent of those needing orthopaedic surgery are overdue.
One-quarter of patients needing urgent surgery, within 30 days, are waiting longer than recommended, including 38 per cent of urology patients and 24 per cent needing vascular surgery.
There are 7620 people who are classed as being "ready for care" and an extra 1233 who are on the list but are not ready for their surgeries.
The waiting list was from early March.
Canberra Health Services will start publishing the elective surgery waiting list publicly on a fortnightly basis. Updated figures are expected to be uploaded on Friday.
Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley said the latest information, revealed to her under a freedom of information request, was concerning and showed the government was going backwards.
"This is utterly disgraceful. Despite the Labor-Greens government setting a target for only 430 patients to wait longer than clinically recommended, it is not even close to that commitment," she said.
The territory government has a target of 15,500 elective surgeries over the 2023-24 year.
The government says they are tackling elective surgery waiting lists by partnering with private hospitals to do more surgeries and increasing the capacity in the public system with $6.7 million allocated last year.
There will be more theatres in the new critical services building at Canberra Hospital, due to open later this year. There will be 22 theatres but only 17 will be in action from the first day. The other five will be available in case they are needed as Canberra's population grows.
Elective surgeries took a hit following a fire in an operating theatre at the then Calvary Public Hospital Bruce in late-2022. The seven theatres at the hospital were not fully opened until October 2023.
The territory's public health system fell short of its elective surgery last financial year. The government had aimed to deliver more than 14,800 elective surgeries over last financial year but only 12,629 were delivered.
The ACT government has aimed to deliver 60,000 elective surgeries over four years, with the deadline for this finishing at the end of 2024-25. The government has said they are working with private providers in an attempt to meet this commitment.
But Ms Castley said the government had failed to deliver a number of measures which could have improved elective surgery waiting times.
"One of the main reasons for the blowout in elective surgery waitlists is the 12-year delay for the Canberra Hospital expansion, which is still not complete and three elections late," she said.
"Another reason is Labor's abandonment of its 2020 election promise to build a $21 million elective surgery centre at the University of Canberra.
"Let's not forget the minister also promised at the last election to complete over 60,000 elective surgeries in four years and it appears they will not meet that target, either."
