---
title: "Public and private waiting: what can and cannot be compared"
description: "Why private hospital waiting times are not on this site, what the public figures cover, and what to ask before choosing."
url: "https://surgerywaits.au/guides/public-and-private-waiting/"
---

# Public and private waiting: what can and cannot be compared

Private hospitals do not report to the national planned-surgery waiting-time collection. There is no published private waiting time to compare with the public figures, so this site does not show one. Anything that compares a private hospital's wait with a public hospital's is comparing a measured number with an estimate.

## What the public figures cover

They cover planned surgery in public hospitals: how long people waited from being placed on the waiting list to having the surgery. They do not cover the wait to see the specialist beforehand, and they do not cover emergency surgery.

## What differs in the private system

- Waiting depends on your surgeon's own list rather than a hospital-wide queue, so it varies between surgeons at the same hospital.
- There are usually out-of-pocket costs, even with private health insurance — surgeon and anaesthetist gap fees, and any excess on your policy.
- Some policies have waiting periods before a condition is covered.

## Being treated privately in a public hospital

You can be treated as a private patient in a public hospital. It does not move you up the public waiting list, and it may bring out-of-pocket costs. Ask directly what it would change.

## Questions worth asking

- What is the total out-of-pocket cost, including the surgeon, the anaesthetist and the hospital?
- How long is the wait with this specific surgeon, and is that a wait for the clinic or for the surgery?
- If I stay in the public system, is there a hospital with a shorter published wait that I could be referred to?

## Quick answers

### Why are private hospitals not shown on this site?

Private hospitals do not report to the national planned-surgery waiting-time collection, so there is no published figure to compare. Showing an estimate beside a measured number would be misleading.

## Before you use these figures

Surgery Waits is not medical advice. It republishes official statistics about waiting times that have already happened, and it does not recommend any hospital, doctor or treatment. Your general practitioner (GP) and your treating specialist are the right people to help you decide what is appropriate for you.

**In an emergency call 000.**

Waiting-time figures: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare MyHospitals, licensed under [CC BY 3.0 AU](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/). Quarterly state figures: Queensland Health. Suburb and locality data: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Both licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Surgery Waits is not connected with any of these organisations.

Surgery Waits is published by [National Digital](https://nationaldigital.com.au/).

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This is the Markdown copy of https://surgerywaits.au/guides/public-and-private-waiting/.