---
title: "How long will I wait for surgery?"
description: "Official 2024–25 waiting times for planned surgery: 151 surgery types at 293 public hospitals, compared across states and borders."
url: "https://surgerywaits.au/"
---

# How long will I wait for surgery?

What public hospitals near you published, including across state borders.

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

## What this site does

Public hospitals across Australia report how long people waited for planned surgery. The figures are published once a year, hospital by hospital and surgery by surgery, but not in a form that lets you compare the hospitals near you — especially across a state border. This site does that, and nothing else.

Every number here is a published government figure, shown with the period it covers and the date it was released. Nothing is estimated, crowd-sourced or sponsored, and no hospital is called best: the order is the measured number and nothing else.

## Start here

- [Every surgery type](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/) — 151 surgery types with national and state figures.
- [Every public hospital](https://surgerywaits.au/hospitals/) — 293 hospitals, listed by state.
- [Every state and territory](https://surgerywaits.au/state/) — state medians, hospital rankings and cross-border comparisons.
- [Urgency categories](https://surgerywaits.au/urgency/) — what Category 1, 2 and 3 mean, and how often each hospital treats people on time.
- [Guides](https://surgerywaits.au/guides/) — referrals, cancellations, and public versus private waiting.
- [Methodology](https://surgerywaits.au/methodology/) — where the numbers come from and what they cannot tell you.

## Public hospital surgery waiting times in Australia

The twenty most-reported surgery types, with the national median wait for each in 2024–25. Every surgery links to its full comparison — state by state, then hospital by hospital.

The twenty surgery types most public hospitals reported, 2024–25. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.

| Surgery | National median wait | Surgeries | Hospitals reporting |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Skin lesion removal](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/skin-lesion-removal/) | 26 days | 59852 surgeries | 235 |
| [Hernia repair](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/hernia-repair/) | 86 days | 12195 surgeries | 221 |
| [Inguinal hernia repair](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/inguinal-hernia-repair/) | 73 days | 16694 surgeries | 217 |
| [Carpal tunnel surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/carpal-tunnel-surgery/) | 71 days | 9994 surgeries | 204 |
| [Haemorrhoid surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/haemorrhoid-surgery/) | 63 days | 4759 surgeries | 204 |
| [Gallbladder removal](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/gallbladder-removal/) | 48 days | 18067 surgeries | 199 |
| [Keyhole belly surgery (laparoscopy)](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/laparoscopy/) | 69 days | 9403 surgeries | 196 |
| [Toenail surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/toenail-surgery/) | 48 days | 1323 surgeries | 192 |
| [Circumcision](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/circumcision/) | 80 days | 3291 surgeries | 181 |
| [Keyhole joint surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/arthroscopy/) | 78 days | 8779 surgeries | 177 |
| [Dilatation and curettage](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/dilatation-and-curettage/) | 28 days | 36667 surgeries | 175 |
| [Ganglion cyst removal](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/ganglion-excision-of/) | 105 days | 1191 surgeries | 170 |
| [Hydrocele surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/hydrocele-repair-of/) | 95 days | 1477 surgeries | 168 |
| [LLETZ procedure](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/lletz-procedure/) | 33 days | 4937 surgeries | 168 |
| [Hysterectomy](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/hysterectomy/) | 74 days | 9163 surgeries | 164 |
| [Trigger finger release](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/trigger-finger-release/) | 90 days | 1696 surgeries | 161 |
| [Ovary and fallopian tube surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/salpingo-oophorectomy-oophorectomy-ovarian-cystectomy/) | 56 days | 4989 surgeries | 160 |
| [Bladder scope (cystoscopy)](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/cystoscopy/) | 26 days | 57307 surgeries | 156 |
| [Dupuytren's contracture surgery](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/dupuytrens-contracture-surgery/) | 150 days | 1777 surgeries | 154 |
| [ACL reconstruction](https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/acl-reconstruction/) | 81 days | 4122 surgeries | 150 |

### By state and territory

Each state and territory's published medians, 2024–25: how many hospitals report, and the state's shortest and longest median across its surgery types. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.

| State or territory | Hospitals reporting | Surgery types | Shortest state median | Longest state median |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [New South Wales](https://surgerywaits.au/state/nsw/) | 98 | 107 | 2 days — unhealed fracture repair | 348 days — droopy eyelid repair |
| [Victoria](https://surgerywaits.au/state/vic/) | 48 | 107 | 2 days — curettage and evacuation of uterus | 606 days — rhinoplasty |
| [Queensland](https://surgerywaits.au/state/qld/) | 54 | 89 | 4 days — curettage and evacuation of uterus | 363 days — rhinoplasty |
| [Western Australia](https://surgerywaits.au/state/wa/) | 40 | 72 | 6 days — curettage and evacuation of uterus | 216 days — turbinate surgery (inside the nose) |
| [South Australia](https://surgerywaits.au/state/sa/) | 40 | 55 | 5 days — curettage and evacuation of uterus | 497 days — breast reduction |
| [Tasmania](https://surgerywaits.au/state/tas/) | 4 | 24 | 22 days — breast lump removal | 271 days — deviated septum surgery |
| [Australian Capital Territory](https://surgerywaits.au/state/act/) | 3 | 5 | 133 days — inguinal hernia repair | 388 days — knee replacement |
| [Northern Territory](https://surgerywaits.au/state/nt/) | 6 | 13 | 1 day — curettage and evacuation of uterus | 377 days — eardrum repair |

### Three numbers worth knowing

- The longest published median wait in 2024–25 was **1236 days** — rhinoplasty at Box Hill Hospital — [see the 50 longest waits](https://surgerywaits.au/longest-waits/).
- Crossing a state border saved up to **427 days** on the same surgery at hospitals 95 km apart — [see where the border cuts the wait](https://surgerywaits.au/longest-waits/border/).
- The biggest state-level move year on year was excess eyelid skin removal in Victoria: 356 days to **189 days** — [see where waits rose and fell](https://surgerywaits.au/longest-waits/changes/).

## What the figures cannot tell you

These are medians of surgery that has already happened, across all urgency categories together. They are not a live queue and not a prediction of your own wait. Your wait depends on the urgency category your treating specialist assigns you after you are seen in a clinic, and on the wait to be seen in that clinic in the first place — which is not in this data.

Public hospitals only. Private hospitals do not report to this collection, so their waiting times cannot be compared here.

## 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/).

* * *

This is the Markdown copy of https://surgerywaits.au/.