Australian Institute of Health and Welfare releases elective surgery wait times across the country

Public hospital data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) today revealed the median wait times for different types of elective surgeries across the country for the 2021-2022 financial year.

AIHW spokesperson Adrian Webster said there were more than 130,000 fewer elective surgeries performed across all public hospitals last financial year, 17 per cent fewer than the year prior.

"This followed periodic suspensions of lower-urgency elective surgery starting from March 2020, which have aimed to help ensure the health system maintains adequate capacity during the pandemic," Dr Webster said.

"An elective surgery is medically necessary, and may be urgent, but applies where the patient's clinical condition does not require immediate care through an emergency admission."

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In the Murrumbidgee Local Health District, the median urgent elective surgery wait time before the patient was admitted to hospital was a fortnight last financial year.

For semi-urgent elective surgeries, this time frame increased to a 47-day median and non-urgent surgeries to more than half a year at 281 days.

All wait times are within recommended surgery time lines.

Ophthalmology, surgery on the eye, had the longest median wait time of 268 days, followed by orthopaedic (bone and associated structures) surgery, with a median time before admission of 148 days.

It was a median wait of 116 days before those waiting for ear, nose and throat surgeries were admitted last year.

Across NSW, the median time for admission for elective surgery dropped from 68 days in the 2020-21 financial year to 55 in 2021-2022.

The NSW government announced an additional funding boost of $408 million in next year's budget as they try to fast-track COVID-19 delayed elective surgeries.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the funding will mean 267 extra staff will be hired across the state, and in some areas will open surgery books on weekends and evenings.

This additional funding will enable the fast-tracking of procedures that were delayed to ensure our health system had the capacity to deal with the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr Hazzard said.

Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor said she expected elective surgeries in some areas will operate at a 125 per cent capacity (based off pre-pandemic levels) as they work through the backlog from COVID-19.

In the MLHD, the median wait time for a gynaecological surgery was 41 days last year. Patients waiting to undergo a urology surgery waited a median of 25 days.

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