Emails obtained under Freedom of Information by Shadow Minister for Health Leanne Castley reveal utter confusion between the ACT Health Directorate (ACTHD) and Canberra Health Services (CHS) over how many Canberrans use nurse-led Walk-in centres.

The documents show there was a difference of over 11,000 between the Health Directorate’s and CHS’ figures of Walk-in Centre throughput for the 9 months between 1 July 2023 and 31 March 2024.

ACTHD claims nurse-led WiC’s throughput for these nine months was 93,246, whereas CHS, using the Digital Health Record, counted it as 104,533 – a 12 per cent difference.

The data was requested by the Health Minister’s office in preparation for an Assembly debate on Walk-in Centres on 11 April 2024.

This request generated a flurry of emails, prompting CHS’ Director of Government Relations to vent his frustration at ‘the Office’ by writing:

“Noting there is different data sets flying around, perhaps it would be beneficial for the Office to seek the data from one directorate and not both?... It is not efficient for us to do work and get this info for ACTDH to come over the top and provide something different.”

Ms Castley said this was yet another example of Labor’s oversight of Walk-in Centres being a shambles.

“This latest debacle follows recent revelations exposed by the Canberra Liberals that the Minister tried to put doctors into Walk-in Centres but failed, and then claimed it was the Liberals who didn’t support the nurse-led model,” Ms Castley said.

“Previous to that the ACT Government also claimed Walk-in Centres cost $110 per presentation whereas official emails show the cost is close to $200 and since late 2022 Walk-in Centres don’t keep figures on how many patients they refer to emergency departments – a key measure of their effectiveness.”

Ms Castley said it was telling that in the end neither the Minister for Health, or Population Health, used either throughput figure in the Assembly debate.

“It is clear, the Minister’s credibility on Walk-in Centres is in tatters and it is incomprehensible that she is unable or unwilling to provide reliable information to Canberrans about how much the centres cost, how many people are using them and how many patients are then referred elsewhere.

“The huge divergence in walk-in Centre figures also appears to be another case of the Digital Health Record data not being reliable.

“There has been no published data on Walk-in Centre’s in CHS’ Quarterly Performance Reports for nearly two years due to the ongoing debacle with the DHR,” Ms Castley concluded.