ACT public hospital emergency departments have some of the longest waiting times in the country, according to new national figures.

The Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services has revealed that 61.8 per cent of ACT patients were seen within the recommended timeframe of four hours.

The only jurisdiction to have longer waiting times was the Northern Territory, and the ACT was well short of the 75 per cent benchmark achieved nationally.

Health Minister Simon Corbell said despite the poor figures, waiting times have improved.

"The number of people being seen on time (is) now up to 61.8 per cent, from 57.3 per cent the year before," he said.

"So (there's) ongoing improvement within the emergency department, with more beds to be funded by the Government in the coming 12 months as part of a major refurbishment of the ED."

The report also revealed the ACT had the lowest rate of patient satisfaction in the country.

About a quarter of patients felt like doctors were not listening or spending enough time with them, and more than 20 per cent felt like they were not always shown respect.

Mr Corbell said the low level of patient satisfaction stemmed from high levels of demand.

"This shows that our emergency departments and elective surgery areas are very busy," he said.

"Doctors and nurses are having to work hard and go through many occasions of care.

"But what we also see is excellent outcomes from that care, with the lowest level of readmission of any state or territory in the country."

The national report revealed the ACT had the highest proportion of overweight people in the country, at nearly 38 per cent of the population.

Shortage of ACT GPs having an impact on emergency departments

Canberra also recorded the lowest levels of bulk billing, and the highest proportion of people deferring treatments due to cost.

"Where we see a shortage, or problems with people accessing their general practitioner that does flow through ultimately to the hospital emergency departments, " Mr Corbell said.

"That puts more pressure on our hospitals with those really avoidable matters that could be better managed at the GP level."

The ACT Opposition said Mr Corbell did not have any solutions to the problem.

"Emergency department waiting times are still dire," Canberra Liberals leader Jeremy Hanson said.

"The ACT health system has consistently performed poorly under ACT Labor's management and I continue to hear regularly from Canberrans who are forced to deal with the problems.

"Katy Gallagher left the health system in a mess and I don't have faith in Simon Corbell's or the rest of the ACT Labor Government's ability to fix it."

The number of GPs per 100,000 people in the ACT has increased to 72, from 65.5 in 2012.

The ANU Medical School has helped boost doctor numbers over the past decade with its local training program.

However ACT AMA president Elizabeth Gallagher said the shortage of GPs in Canberra was a complex issue.

"The increase in local graduates is improving the figures," she said.

"But I think there is overall a trend for people to want to stay in the major cities, and unfortunately Canberra is not classified as one of those and so we are dealing with a similar issue to rural centres."

Dr Gallagher said the figures also showed 80 per cent of people were seeing GPs within 24 hours.

"I thought that was, especially with 60 per cent seeing within four hours, quite good," she said.

"Even though that's slightly lower than average and we can certainly improve, that's still quite good.

"And I think all GPs are working very hard, and they are trying to do the best by their patients."