Surgery Waits

Keyhole joint surgery waiting time at Royal Darwin Hospital

Half of patients at Royal Darwin Hospital waited 172 days or less for keyhole joint surgery in 2024–25 (AIHW MyHospitals, released 28 May 2026). The source publishes this surgery as "Arthroscopy". This public hospital is in the Tiwi area of Northern Territory.

Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released 28 May 2026.

These figures describe surgery that already happened, not your own wait.

Median wait
172 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed
72 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days
22.2%2024–25 · released 28 May 2026

Half the people who had this surgery here waited less than the median, and half waited longer. Of the 150 public hospitals that published a median wait for this surgery in 2024–25, this one sits at 124 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has risen from 61 days in 2016–17 to 172 days in 2024–25 — up 182% — while the national median rose from 68 days to 78 days. Here, 22.2% of people waited more than 365 days for this surgery; nationally it was 7.1%.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Arthroscopy" and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.

How this compares

Median wait, long waits and volume for Arthroscopy, 2024–25.
Where Median wait Waited more than 365 days Surgeries
Royal Darwin Hospital172 days22.2%72 surgeries
Northern Territory (all public hospitals)81 days12.5%136 surgeries
Australia (all public hospitals)78 days7.1%8779 surgeries

Where the wait is shorter nearby

No other public hospital within 1,000 km published a figure for this surgery in this period.

How the wait has changed

Median wait for arthroscopy by financial year at Royal Darwin Hospital, compared with Northern Territory and Australiadays0501001502002016–172018–192020–212022–232024–25Royal Darwin Hospital 172NT 81Australia 78
View these numbers as a table
Median wait in days for Arthroscopy, by financial year. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Reference periodRoyal Darwin Hospital (days)NT (days)Australia (days)
2016–17615868
2017–18776872
2018–19555175
2019–20442976
2020–21494889
2021–2248not published85
2022–2381not published86
2023–24140not published78
2024–251728178

Public hospitals only — what these figures include and leave out.

All surgery at Royal Darwin Hospital · Keyhole joint surgery across Australia · Keyhole joint surgery in Northern Territory · All surgery waits in Northern Territory