The Burrow
Oct 22, 2026
Australia’s public hospital system faces pressure from demand for elective surgery, with waiting times varying across the country depending on location and the procedure required.
Many Australians may wait longer than they should for planned treatment, or longer than people in other parts of Australia. But which states and territories have the longest surgery wait times, and how have they changed over the years?
The health insurance comparison experts at Compare the Market created Australia’s Surgery Waiting Times Report to reveal waiting times and how it has changed over previous years, demand for elective surgery, and the performance by surgical speciality and intended procedures across all Australian states and territories.
Our report identifies state and procedure-specific findings, alongside year-on-year analysis to show how wait times across Australia are improving or worsening.
| State/Territory | % treated within clinically recommended time | Gap to the national recommended-time rate | Average overdue wait time (days) | Admissions into hospital from waiting lists | Admissions into hospital per 100k people | Difference from national admissions per 100k people |
| Victoria | 84% | +3.3% | 236 | 211,961 | 2,996.1 | +133.3 |
| New South Wales | 83% | +2.3% | 60 | 232,849 | 2,709.5 | -153.3 |
| Queensland | 81% | +0.3% | 105 | 149,195 | 2,631.4 | -231.3 |
| Western Australia | 80% | -0.7% | 114 | 89,614 | 2,944.2 | +81.5 |
| South Australia | 72% | -8.7% | 131 | 61,419 | 3,228.7 | +365.9 |
| Northern Territory | 68% | -12.7% | 469 | 6,406 | 2,422.8 | -439.9 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 67% | -13.7% | 164 | 16,565 | 3,416.9 | +554.1 |
| Tasmania | 65% | -15.7% | 162 | 22,519 | 3,909.5 | +1,046.8 |
| Australia | 80.7% | Benchmark | 180 | 790,528 | 2,862.7 | Benchmark |
All data reflects the 2024-25 AIHW and RoGS releases
Tasmania recorded the lowest proportion of patients treated within the clinically recommended timeframe at 65.0%, which is 15.7% below the national average of 80.7%.
The Australian Capital Territory followed closely behind, with 67% of patients treated within the recommended timeframe, while the Northern Territory ranked third lowest at 68.0%. Together, these regions were the only ones to fall below 70%.
Victoria ranked highest for this metric, with 84% of patients treated within the recommended timeframe, followed by New South Wales and Queensland, at 83% and 81%, respectively.
While Victoria, NSW and QLD all exceeded the national average for patients treated within the clinically recommended timeframe, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT lagged behind. These smaller regions generally have fewer hospitals and serve more dispersed populations than Australia’s larger states. The data highlights the notable impact on elective surgery wait times, underscoring the ongoing challenges of delivering timely care consistently across the country.
The Northern Territory recorded the longest average overdue wait for surgery, at 469 days, meaning many patients could wait well over a year for surgery. By comparison, the average overdue wait time in New South Wales was 60 days.
Victoria had the second-longest overdue wait time, averaging 236 days. The ACT and Tasmania followed, with averages of 164 and 162 days, respectively.
The stark contrast between the Northern Territory and New South Wales highlights the uneven experience of accessing elective surgery across Australia. While some patients face relatively short overdue waits, others can wait well over a year beyond the recommended timeframe. This highlights the considerable variation in timely access to care between regions, and how smaller, less populated regions with fewer hospitals can face additional challenges in delivering timely elective surgery.
Australia has more than 250 Local Hospital Networks delivering public hospital care nationwide. To identify where the greatest volume of elective surgery occurs, we analysed the hospitals that performed the most procedures during the reporting period. Metro North in Queensland recorded the highest volume of elective surgeries, performing 31,291 procedures during the 12-month reporting period. Monash Health in Victoria followed closely behind with 29,671 procedures, while Hunter New England in New South Wales ranked third with 28,986.
The top-ranked networks are among Australia’s largest health services, serving substantial populations and operating extensive hospital networks. Several other large metropolitan and state-wide services also recorded more than 20,000 elective surgeries, including Metro South (QLD), South Eastern Sydney and South Western Sydney (NSW), and Western Australia’s North Metropolitan Health Service.
At the other end of the rankings, Northern Health (Victoria), Austin Health (Victoria), Sunshine Coast (Queensland), Northern NSW and Illawarra Shoalhaven recorded the lowest elective surgery volumes among the 25 largest Local Hospital Networks included in the analysis, with between 12,344 and 14,536 procedures completed.
While Metro North (QLD) performed the highest number of elective surgeries, an estimated 79% of patients were treated within the recommended timeframe, just below the national benchmark of 80.7%. Central Adelaide recorded 16,493 elective surgeries over the 12 months but had one of the lowest proportions of patients treated within the recommended timeframe, at just 53.2%.
However, lower surgery volumes did not always correspond with shorter wait times. Mackay and Central Queensland recorded relatively low elective surgery volumes of 2,666 and 3,756 procedures respectively, yet only 57.8% and 60.4% of patients were treated within the recommended timeframe.
Several larger local hospital networks also fell below the national benchmark of 80.7%. The Tasmanian Health Service performed 22,519 elective surgeries during the reporting period, but only 65.3% of patients were treated within the recommended timeframe. Similarly, South Eastern Sydney (NSW) completed 23,559 elective surgeries, yet just 71.7% of patients received treatment on time. For non-urgent procedures, that figure fell further to 60.0%.
At the other end of the rankings, Sydney was the only Local Hospital Network to treat 100% of patients within the recommended timeframe, while performing 21,991 elective surgeries.
The surgical specialty with the longest wait times was ear, nose and throat surgery (ENT), with a median wait time of 99 days, and the highest proportion of patients waiting more than a year (14.4%) – this is across a total of 60,031 ENT surgeries.
Ophthalmology (eyes and their diseases) followed closely behind with a median wait of 92 days across 117,596 surgeries. Orthopaedic surgery (musculoskeletal system) also recorded delays with a median wait time of 86 days and 10.8% of patients waiting longer than a year, despite more than 100,000 surgeries being performed.
Surgical specialties and their median wait times:
At the procedure level, septoplasty and breast reduction had the longest median wait times at 320 and 309 days, respectively. While septoplasty had the highest typical wait time, breast reduction had the highest proportion of patients waiting more than a year at 33.2%, the highest in our study.
Total knee replacement was notable due because of its high volume of procedures and delays. Across 17,987 procedures, the median wait time was 255 days, and almost one in four (23.2%) patients waited more than 365 days for treatment.
There is a clear contrast in the variation between procedures. Tonsillectomy had a median wait of 182 days, with 17% of patients waiting over 365 days. Cardio-thoracic surgery recorded a median wait of just 20 days, with only 0.7% waiting longer than a year.
The Australian Capital Territory recorded the longest median wait for gynaecology surgery, at 56 days. The ACT recorded 1,772 gynaecology elective surgeries during the 12-month period analysed, with 3.4% of patients waiting more than 365 days for treatment.
South Australia follows closely behind, with a median wait of 55 days. However, the state recorded the highest proportion of patients waiting more than a year, at 5.7%. This suggests that while the median wait in South Australia is only one day shorter than in the ACT, patients in South Australia are more likely to experience particularly lengthy waits.
New South Wales ranks third for the median wait time of 45 days. The state recorded 28,424 gynaecology elective surgeries, the highest amount in Australia, while 4.1% of patients waited more than 365 days.
It’s estimated that one in seven women aged 44–49 are living with endometriosis, with growing awareness of the condition reflected in research.1 Analysis found that hospitalisation rates for endometriosis have increased by 23% over the past decade, compared with a 5% increase in the overall female hospitalisation rate,
During 2024–25, there were 24,700 endometriosis-related hospitalisations recorded across Australia, with 91% involving a procedure, highlighting the significant proportion of patients requiring procedural care. More than seven in 10 (71%) procedure-related endometriosis hospitalisations took place in private hospitals while laparoscopic excision, a minimally invasive keyhole procedure commonly used to diagnose and treat endometriosis, was involved in 52% of hospitalisations during the period.
Six hospitals treated 100% of elective surgeries within the clinically recommended timeframe: Northern Beaches Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Concord Repatriation Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Institute of Rheumatology & Orthopaedics, Gloucester Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital and Queanbeyan Hospital. New South Wales ranks in nine of the top 10 highest-performing hospitals in the study.
Sunbury Day Hospital in Victoria followed closely behind, treating 99.8% of its 757 elective surgeries within the recommended timeframe.
Macksville District Hospital (NSW) recorded the lowest number of elective surgeries treated within the clinically recommended timeframe, at 36.4%. Almost two-thirds of the hospital’s 1,743 elective surgeries were not treated within the recommended timeframe. Macksville’s overall result masks a significant difference between urgency categories. Of the hospital’s urgent elective surgeries, 93% were treated within the recommended 30-day timeframe.
For non-urgent patients attending Macksville District Hospital, 1,256 surgeries were treated, and just 37% were within the recommended 365-day timeframe. The data also revealed that some patients were waiting more than 375 days for treatment.
Sydney Hospital / Sydney Eye Hospital recorded the second-lowest proportion with 44.8% of elective surgeries being treated within the recommended timeframe. Of the 7,394 elective surgeries recorded at the hospital, more than half were not treated within the clinically recommended timeframe.
North West Regional Hospital (Tasmania) recorded the third-lowest proportion, with 49.7% of its 1,948 elective surgeries treated within the recommended timeframe. Just under half of the hospital’s elective surgeries were treated within the recommended timeframe.
The rankings are proportionate, allowing hospitals of different sizes to be compared on treatment timeliness rather than total surgeries performed.
Despite these findings, it’s important to remember that no single statistic can provide a complete picture of Australia’s elective surgery system. However, examining the clinically recommended waiting times, one-year waits, procedure-level differences, and year-on-year changes together can offer insight about which states and territories have more accessible hospital services.
Steven Spicer – Executive General Manager of Health at Compare the Market comments: “Waiting for a surgery or procedure can already be stressful, never mind when some patients find themselves waiting over a year before receiving treatment. While Australia’s public health system provides essential care, long wait times for some procedures may lead Australians to consider private healthcare options. Private health insurance can help eligible patients access treatment sooner in some circumstances, while also helping manage the financial impact of private medical care.
“Comparing health insurance is a simple way to understand what level of cover best suits your needs and budget, giving you greater confidence that you’re prepared if you ever require treatment in the future.”
This dataset analyses elective surgery waiting times across Australia using public hospital waiting-list data. The report compares states and territories, Local Hospital Networks, hospitals, surgical specialties, and selected procedures to identify where patients are waiting longest, where demand is highest, and which areas are performing above or below national benchmarks.
Core Waiting Time Data
Elective surgery data was sourced primarily from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) MyHospitals data for 2024-25. This includes the number of elective surgeries, median waiting times, the percentage of patients waiting more than 365 days, and the percentage treated within the clinically recommended times where available.
Demand and Throughput
State and territory waiting-list activity was sourced from Productivity Commission RoGS data, using AIHW-derived elective surgery waiting-list figures. This includes additions to waiting lists, admissions into hospital from waiting lists, total removals from waiting lists, admissions per 100 additions, total removals per 100 additions, and admissions per 100,000 people.
Hospital & LHN Analysis
Hospital and Local Hospital Network tables were built using AIHW hospital-level and LHN-level elective surgery data. Total elective surgeries were used to show activity volume, while recommended-time performance was estimated by weighting urgent, semi-urgent and non-urgent recommended-time rates by the number of surgeries in each urgency category.
Speciality, Procedure & Gynaecology Analysis
Surgical specialties and procedures were compared nationally using median waiting time, percentage waiting more than 365 days, total surgery volume, and 5-year change in median waiting time. Procedure-level tables apply a minimum volume threshold of 500 elective surgeries to reduce the impact of very small or niche procedures. A separate gynaecology focus was included using relevant AIHW speciality and procedure data, alongside contextual endometriosis hospitalisation data.
Location Data
Hospital suburb/locality and wider city/area were added using official hospital location sources, including AIHW reporting-unit mapping and hospital coordinate/address data. Wider city/area was derived from hospital coordinates to support city-level analysis.
All data reflects the latest available 2024-25 AIHW/RoGS releases collected for this report. Figures relate to public hospital elective surgery waiting-list activity and should not be interpreted as all surgery performed in Australia. Any calculated or estimated metrics have been included to support comparison and should be interpreted alongside the relevant source notes and limitations.