What is a public hospital surgery waiting list?

A public hospital surgery waiting list is a system to manage access to public hospital elective surgery. A patient who needs elective surgery is placed on a waiting list. 

A waiting list gives priority to those people who are most in need of care.

What is elective surgery?

Elective surgery is surgery that a doctor or health professional believes is clinically necessary but can be delayed for 24 hours.

An example of elective surgery is a coronary bypass.

What is emergency surgery?

Emergency surgery is for critical cases such as a car accident, poisoning or heart attack.  It is done when the patient’s life or physical welfare is in immediate danger.

What is a waiting time?

A waiting time is the length of time a patient waits from when their elective surgery is booked to when they are admitted for their surgery.

What are the different categories of elective surgery?

Elective surgery is broken into 3 categories. The length of your waiting time for surgery depends on your category of elective surgery.

Where is most elective surgery performed?

In Australia, most elective surgery is performed in private hospitals.

Key statistics on elective surgery waiting lists

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2022-2023: 

• 735,500 patients on public hospital waiting lists had elective surgery. 
• 50% of patients waited at least 49 days for elective surgery. 
• 9.6% of patients waited more than 365 days for elective surgery.