A mother has voiced her frustrations after waiting nearly three years for a referral after presenting to a busy Canberra emergency department.
Elizabeth Sisley presented to the Calvary Hospital in 2012 after having seizures and was told by staff that she needed to see a neurologist and should wait for a referral to a specialist.
To her surprise, she was contacted by the hospital's outpatients department last month despite following up on the referral twice and not receiving any update.
Ms Sisley said she was lucky she could afford to travel to Sydney for treatment and described her experience as an extreme example of waiting lists in the ACT.
An ACT Health spokesman said the directorate could not comment on Ms Sisley's case because of patient privacy considerations, although long waits were not uncommon.
"Neurology is a highly specialised field," he said. "Lengthy waiting lists are not uncommon within the public systems of all states and territories."
Neurologists deal with the diagnosis, investigation and treatment of diseases of the nervous system the most common of which are stroke, epilepsy, headache, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.
The health spokesman said the urgency of referrals was a matter for treating physicians within the emergency department.
Public patients with complex non-urgent medical conditions requiring specialist clinical attention are prioritised on a waiting list, with patients advised of their progress on that list," he said.
"Should the patient's medical condition deteriorate and require urgent reassessment, the services of the emergency department and its specialist physicians are available."
"However, if a patient is experiencing continued symptoms, they should contact their GP."
The spokesman insisted a robust and well-tested system existed to assess patients whose clinical or treatment needs are most urgent.
The ACT government has sought to minimise waiting lists for hospital specialists, emergency department doctors, and elective surgery.
In the 2015-16 budget, the government allocated $14.8 million over two years to slash the territory's waiting list for elective surgery with nearly 4500 Canberrans on the waiting list earlier this week.
The government has claimed the additional funding will result in 500 additional elective surgeries and elective endoscopy procedures in the ACT, easing the burden on the waiting list.
But the government estimated the number of elective surgeries to drop to 12,500 a year from 2017-18, unless the Commonwealth government extended funding.
In June, an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found waiting times for patients at Canberra's emergency department were among the worst in Australia.
The ACT government has allocated $23 million for an extension of the Canberra Hospital emergency department to cope with increasing demand.
The extension will increase the number of beds by 40 per cent, from 54 to 75, while the government considers further redeveloping the hospital.
