Wait times soar as operations slump

The number of elective surgery operations performed in Australia’s hospitals has hit a 10-year low.

The number of elective surgery operations performed in Australia’s hospitals has hit a 10-year low, with the number of people waiting longer than a year for surgery increasing tenfold in some states.

The number of elective surgeries performed dropped almost 20 per cent in 2021-22 compared with the previous year, with 131,600 fewer operations carried out due to Covid-19 suspensions. The reduction in activity was highest in NSW, where 27 per cent fewer surgeries were performed.

It was the lowest number of operations performed in public and private hospitals nationally since 2010-11, when the numbers on waiting lists were far fewer. There are now 6.3 per cent of people on elective surgery waiting lists who have been waiting longer than a year for their operation, compared with 1.8 per cent five years ago. Almost 10 per cent have been waiting longer than a year in NSW, and 12 per cent in Tasmania.

One in five patients needing to have their tonsils out or a hip replacement have been on the waiting list longer than a year, while almost one in three of those needing knee replacements have been waiting longer than year.

Wait times are very long for head and neck surgery and orthopaedic surgery.

The figures are contained in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s annual data reporting on the nation’s hospitals.

The data reveals shocking blowouts in elective surgery wait times in Victorian public hospitals due to Covid-19 amid a massive reduction in the performance of Category 3 surgery, deemed non-urgent by hospitals but regarded as essential by patients and doctors.

While NSW hospitals admitted 65,799 patients for Category 3 surgery in 2021-22, Victorian hospitals admitted only 25,971 such patients. Almost all of those needing surgery in the highest category of urgency were admitted to hospital for their operation within recommended timeframes in both states, but only 78.9 per cent of Category 2 semi-urgent ­surgeries were performed on time in NSW and just over half in ­Victoria.

The average overdue wait time for patients on lists for Category 2 surgery in Victoria was 191 days, and 246 days for Category 3 surgery patients.

In Tasmania, only 64 per cent of people needing life-saving Category 1 surgery were operated on within clinically recommended timeframes. The state also had extremely long overdue wait times for all categories of surgery.

The AIHW data also found that presentations to public hospital emergency departments have increased by an average of 3.2 per cent per year for the past five years.

In 2021­–22, 67 per cent of patients were seen on time for their urgency category, down from 71 per cent in 2020–21.

The Bureau of Health Information in NSW also released its latest quarterly report, which showed ambulance services continued to experience high demand in July to September. The number of Priority 1 responses has increased 16.3 per cent when compared with the same quarter in 2019.

Emergency department presentations dropped 2.6 per cent in the past quarter in NSW, but there were steep increases in the numbers of presentations in the most serious triage category.