SIMON Corbell says the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services has shown waiting times for elective services have continued to improve in the ACT over the past year.

“The ACT Government is committed to providing quality healthcare services to Canberrans, and the release of the Productivity Commission’s report today shows that we are continuing to improve how quickly patients access their elective surgery,” Simon said.

“The report has shown the ACT’s elective surgery wait times remain the lowest they have been in more than a decade, and have improved on the positive results seen in last year’s report.

“The report shows ACT Public Hospital waiting times for elective services have continued to improve in the past year, with our median wait time for surgery improving from 48 days in 2013-14 to 45 days in 2014-15.

“The $11.8 million elective surgery blitz, which aims to provide 1,000 extra surgeries through to June this year, is also well underway. This funding will provide even further improvements to access to surgery, to ensure waiting times continue to remain the lowest they have been since 2003.”

UPDATE: The Liberals’ don’t take the same rosy view:

The disappointing results for Canberra’s health system have continued with the release of the Productivity Commission’s Health Report on Government Services (ROGS), Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Minister for Health Jeremy Hanson said today.

“The ACT’s emergency departments are still the worst in the country according to today’s ROGS statistics. In the past week Simon Corbell has spent plenty of time talking about light rail, but not about fixing health,” Mr Hanson said.

“Today’s data shows, in 2014-15 only 59 percent of emergency department patients were seen on time in the ACT while across the border in NSW 81 percent were seen on time.

“In terms of length of time patients are forced to wait, the figure is 147 minutes in the 90th percentile in the ACT, but only 78 minutes in NSW.

“Furthermore, ROGS reported the ACT having the worst bulk billing rate in the country at 58 percent in 2014-15 while the national average is 85 percent.

“It’s another day, another bad report on health in Canberra. You have to wonder how bad it has to get for the Barr government to divert attention away from light rail and into our struggling health system,” Mr Hanson concluded.