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released: 11 Jun 2008 author: AIHW media release

Access to elective surgery in public hospitals is of interest to health providers, policy makers and the general public. This report presents a detailed picture of access to elective surgery services in Australia using combined admitted patient and elective surgery waiting times data.

ISBN 978 1 74024 793 1; Cat. no. HSE 57; 88pp.; Out of print

Full publication

Publication table of contents

  • Preliminary material
    • Half title and verso pages
    • Title and verso pages
    • Foreword
    • Acknowledgements
    • Contents
    • Abbreviations
    • Summary
  • Sections
    1. Introduction
      • Background
        • Methods to measure access to elective surgery
        • This report
      • Current reporting of information on access to elective surgery
      • Limitations of the current measures of access to elective surgery
      • New measures
    2. Methods
    3. Measures of supply of elective surgery
      • Public and private elective surgery
      • Elective surgery separation rates
      • Public elective surgery
    4. Measures of demand for public elective surgery
      • Current reporting of elective surgery waiting times
      • New measures of demand
    5. Adverse events
      • Overview
      • Public elective surgery
    6. Future directions
  • End matter
    • Appendix - statistical tables
    • List of tables
    • List of figures
    • Glossary
    • References

Notes and corrections

The current version of the publication is presented above. Previous versions of files that have been updated or corrected are presented below.

  1. Median waiting times data have been corrected for the following (11/06/2008):
    • Page x - The overall median waiting time (by Indigenous status) has been corrected from 29 days to 28 days.
    • Page 28 - The overall median waiting time (by Indigenous status) has been corrected from 29 days to 28 days.
    • Page 65, Table A1.20 - The overall median waiting time for females has been corrected from 28 days to 29 days

Recommended citation

AIHW 2008. Elective surgery in Australia: new measures of access. Cat. no. HSE 57. Canberra: AIHW.