New types of measures to examine data on elective surgery
waiting times in Australian hospitals help to improve data
comparability at a State and Territory level.
The new measures are introduced in Waiting Times for
Elective Surgery in Australia 1999-00 released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The data are now presented as the number of days by which 50%
(the median waiting time) and 90% of patients had been admitted.
The proportions of patients who waited more than 12 months for
admission are also presented.
Head of the AIHW's Health Division, Geoff Sims, said that the
new approach considers all patients together, rather than in
clinical urgency categories, which had been the basis for previous
reports. This overcomes comparability problems introduced by
apparent wide variation in urgency categorisation.
'We are now able to present clearer information about patterns
of waiting times experienced by patients,' Mr Sims said.
The report shows that in 1999-00 the median waiting time for
patients who were admitted from waiting lists was 27 days
nationally, and ranged from 22 days in Queensland to 36 days in
Tasmania. Overall, 90% of patients were admitted within 175 days.
The proportion of patients admitted after waiting for more than 12
months was 3.1%.
Data are presented for the first time for different hospital
peer groups. In principal referral and specialist women's and
children's hospitals, the median waiting time was 24 days. It was
31 days in other large hospitals, and 28 days in medium hospitals.
The 65 principal referral and specialist women's and children's
hospitals accounted for about 66% of all admissions from waiting
lists in the data collection, with the 95 other large and medium
hospitals accounting for another 32% between them.
Most surgical specialties had median waiting times of less than
30 days. Cardio-thoracic surgery was the surgical specialty with
the shortest median waiting time (11 days). Orthopaedic surgery and
ophthalmology had the longest median waiting times at 53 and 54
days respectively.
Data were also collected for a range of frequently performed
'indicator' procedures. Coronary artery bypass graft was the
procedure with the lowest median waiting time (15 days), while
total knee replacement had the highest median waiting time at 112
days.
30 January 2002
Further information: Mr Geoff Sims, tel. 02
6244 1168
Media copies of the report: Publications Officer,
AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for details.