ACT Public Hospital Specialist Waiting List Disclosed for First Time: 65,000 Awaiting Treatment, Patients Forced to Choose Between Lengthy Waits and Out-of-Pocket Private Care

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, data released for the first time by Canberra Health Services shows that approximately 65,000 people are awaiting specialist appointments on the outpatient waiting list at Australian Capital Territory (ACT) public hospitals. This scale of figures had never been publicly disclosed in the organisation's history, and only came to light this week when the agency launched an internal review of specialist and outpatient services.

The ACT public hospital system's review stems from 49 recommendations made in a previous independent inquiry. Canberra Health Services said the review will examine outpatient services and referral pathways to better understand the scale of demand.

Chief Operating Officer Alison Derrett acknowledged that lengthy specialist waiting times in the public system were "unacceptable", and estimated the review would take weeks, months, or up to 12 months.

"Having people on waiting lists for extended periods is unacceptable to us. Our clinicians take this very seriously, and I take it very seriously too," Derrett told the ABC.

But for patient Michael Hickey, such promises have come too late. He has been on the specialist waiting list for over four years after seeking treatment in the public system for a hereditary hand condition, and has recently been told he will need to wait another approximately two and a half years before seeing a doctor. If the specialist ultimately decides surgery is needed, he will then join another surgical waiting list.

Hickey said bluntly that the public system's lack of transparent waiting list information gives people the feeling they are queuing on an "invisible waiting list", with yet another surgical waiting list ahead of them.

"Why couldn't these figures be made public from the start? Why isn't there a clear waiting list that would let me decide to switch to a private hospital if I wanted to?" he asked. "I know private healthcare is expensive, but I can save up, pay cash, get the surgery done, and be done with it."

A Canberra grandmother named Billie Spencer has described a similar situation. Her five-year-old granddaughter has needed specialist assessment in the public system for severe fatigue, with a wait exceeding three years. Her family was ultimately forced to opt for private healthcare.

"I believe everyone should have access to quality healthcare, regardless of their financial circumstances. It's absolutely sickening to have reached this point," Spencer said. "Children having to wait so long, or parents and grandparents having to fork out huge sums just to get medical care — it makes me feel deeply frustrated and very sad. It's not right that our public health system has come to this."

According to reports, Canberra Health Services said patients will be contacted over the coming months to assess their conditions and confirm whether appointments are still needed. Derrett conceded: "This will be an ongoing challenge — it's not something that can be resolved in a matter of weeks."

The crisis in public specialist waits stands in contrast to another set of figures. According to ABC citing government data, Canberra completed nearly 18,000 elective surgeries in the last financial year, with signs of improvement in surgical waiting times. However, the specialist outpatient stage before surgery continues to bottleneck large numbers of patients — even those who ultimately secure surgery must first endure lengthy specialist assessment waits.

Notably, the outlet pointed out in an editorial update on 10 October that the 65,000-person waiting list includes patients from New South Wales who use the ACT health system. This means the metric for local resident waiting rates needs to be recalibrated. Yet the lack of transparency in the waiting list system itself, and the excessively long waiting times, remain the tangible reality patients experience.

For patients like Hickey and Spencer's granddaughter, no matter how the figures are refined, the waiting time has already become unbearably long — and the reality of insufficient public healthcare resources is directly shifting medical costs onto every ordinary family.