The average wait time for elective surgery in WA was 51 days according to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, up from an average of 40.6 days before the pandemic.
Elective surgery waiting times were at the highest level in 20 years during 2022–23, as public hospitals worked to catch up following COVID-related disruptions to the health system.
The number of patients undergoing elective surgery in Australia’s public hospitals increased by 18% from 2021-22 to 2022-23, with WA admissions rebounding from 70,988 during the pandemic to 80,793 — yet for the State, this was still well below the pre-COVID figure of 92,410 and preceding years.
“Nationally, there were 735,500 admissions to hospital from public elective surgery waiting lists in 2022–23, up from 623,000 admissions in 2021–22, but still lower than before the pandemic (758,000 admissions in 2018–19),” said AIHW spokesperson Clara Jellie.
The data also showed that half of all patients admitted from a public elective surgery waiting list were admitted for their procedure within 49 days (up from 40 the previous year and similar to the 48 days in 2020–21). The proportion of patients who waited longer than 365 days to be admitted was 9.6%, up from 2.1% pre-pandemic.
Average wait times in WA were:
- Cardio-thoracic surgery – 36 days
- General surgery – 48 days
- Gynaecology – 38 days
- Neurosurgery – 35 days
- Ophthalmology – 90 days
- Orthopaedic – 105 days
- Otolaryngology, head, and neck – 121 days
- Paediatric – 84 days
- Plastic and reconstructive – 33 days
- Urological – 32 days
- Vascular – 30 days
- Other – 23 days
- Total – 51 days
“Public hospitals made concerted efforts during 2020–21 and 2022–23 to work through procedures earlier delayed when non-urgent surgeries were suspended. But because of these earlier delays, overall waiting times for people admitted for care have increased,” Ms Jellie said.
The information on ED care showed there were 8.80 million presentations in 2022–23, a small increase from 8.79 million in 2021–22, with 17% of patients in the most urgent categories (resuscitation and emergency), and 76% categorised as urgent or semi-urgent.
“In the 5 years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, presentations to public hospital emergency departments steadily increased by an average of 3.2% per year, however, in more recent years the numbers have fluctuated and increased at an annual average annual rate of 1.3% over the most recent 5 years,’ Ms Jellie said.
In 2022–23, 65% of patients were seen on time for their urgency category, down from 67% in 2021–22, though almost all patients in the most urgent category, ‘Resuscitation’ – including life threatening-conditions such as heart attacks, severe burns and injuries resulting from a motor vehicle accident – were seen immediately.
Three in 10 (29%) patients seen in the ED were admitted to hospital for further care.
The information on 2022–23’s public hospital elective surgery waiting times and ED care, with national, state and territory, local hospital network and hospital-specific data, is now available on the AIHW’s MyHospitals platform.