More than a third of NSW patients waiting for ptosis repair waited longer than a year, according to new analysis of public hospital waiting lists that reveals which procedures keep patients waiting longest.
The analysis by Compare the Market, based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) MyHospitals 2024-25 data and Productivity Commission Report on Government Services data, compared waiting times across states, Local Hospital Networks, hospitals, and procedures.
For non-urgent elective surgery, the clinically recommended timeframe is within 365 days. Urgent cases should be treated within 30 days, and semi-urgent cases within 90 days.
In NSW, ptosis repair topped the list, with 36 per cent of patients waiting more than 365 days. The median wait was 348 days across 242 surgeries.
Pterygium excision was next, with 32.1 per cent waiting more than a year and a median wait of 346 days.
Total knee replacement was third. Of 7,172 knee replacements performed, 31.3 per cent of patients waited more than a year, with a median wait of 340 days.
Shoulder joint replacement was close behind, with 30.9 per cent of patients waiting more than a year and a median wait of 325 days.
More than a quarter of patients waited over a year for a string of other procedures. They included dacryocystorhinostomy (28.7 per cent, median 307 days), myringoplasty or tympanoplasty (27.9 per cent, median 330 days), and Dupuytren’s contracture release (27.7 per cent, median 329 days).
The same was true for blepharoplasty (27 per cent, median 335 days), septoplasty (26.6 per cent, median 340 days), and nasendoscopy, where 25.5 per cent waited more than a year and the median wait was 343 days.
Cataract extraction was by far the most common procedure on the list, with 32,695 performed. Of those patients, 22 per cent waited more than a year, with a median wait of 268 days.
More than one in five patients also waited over a year for tonsillectomy (21.2 per cent) and total hip replacement (20.9 per cent).
Across NSW overall, 83 per cent of elective surgery patients were treated within the recommended time, the second-highest rate behind Victoria and above the national rate of 80.7 per cent. NSW also recorded the shortest average overdue wait of any state or territory, at 60 days, and the highest number of admissions from waiting lists, at 232,849.
But the results varied widely between hospitals.
Macksville District Hospital on the Mid North Coast recorded the lowest on-time rate in Australia, with 36.4 per cent of its 1,743 surgeries treated within the recommended time. While 93 per cent of urgent surgeries were on time, only 37 per cent of non-urgent procedures met the 365-day benchmark.
The Hunter New England Local Hospital Network performed 28,986 elective surgeries, the third-highest volume of any network in the country.
The full analysis is available at https://www.comparethemarket.com.au/health-insurance/features/australian-surgery-wait-times/
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