Separations for elective surgery are defined as having a surgical procedure, and being admitted on an elective basis. Elective surgery can be provided on a same-day basis or in an overnight admission (a hospitalisation that lasts for at least one night). Public elective surgery describes elective surgery provided in public hospitals and elective surgery provided to public patients in private hospitals.
There were almost 1.9 million elective surgery separations in 2009–10, 661,000 in public hospitals and 1.2 million in private hospitals.
The number of elective surgery separations increased between 2005–06 and 2009–10 by an average of 1.5% for public hospitals and 4.9% for private hospitals each year.
Who used these services?
There was some variation in the rates of access to both public elective surgery and elective surgery for other patients by socioeconomic status (SES).
The public elective surgery separation rate was lowest for those classified as being in the highest SES group (18 per 1,000) and highest for those in the lowest SES group (40 per 1,000).
In contrast, the number of ‘other’ elective surgery separations per 1,000 population (mostly in private hospitals) was highest for those classified in the highest SES group (75 per 1,000) and decreased with socioeconomic status to 41 per 1,000 population for the lowest SES group (Figure 42).
Figure 42: Separations per 1,000 population for public and other elective surgery, by socioeconomic status group, 2009–10
How long do patients wait for elective surgery?