Cancer surgery waiting times

Patients with a cancer-related diagnosis often require more urgent admission from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists than patients awaiting surgery for other conditions. 

Explore the data

Explore the median (50th percentile) waiting times for admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists for cancer-related principal diagnoses and by specialty of surgeon in 2024–25 in the data visualisation below.

In 2024–25, among patients who were admitted from a public hospital elective surgery waiting list:

• the time within which 50% of patients were admitted (that is, the median waiting time) was shorter for patients with a cancer-related principal diagnosis than for patients with other diagnoses (23 days and 60 days, respectively)
• for all cancer-related surgeries, the median waiting times were shorter for patients who were funded by private health insurance than those funded publicly (20 days and 24 days, respectively)
• for cancer-related orthopaedic surgeries, the median waiting times for publicly funded patients was more than twice that of patients funded by private health insurance (49 days and 20 days, respectively).

For patients with a cancer-related principal diagnosis, waiting times to admission from a public hospital waiting list varied by cancer type. For example:

• 50% of patients with lung cancer were admitted for surgery within 15 days, and 90% were admitted within 38 days
• 50% of patients with breast cancer were admitted for surgery within 15 days, and 90%  admitted within 31 days
• 50% of patients with bladder cancer were admitted for surgery within 24 days, and 90% admitted within 79 days
• 50% of patients with prostate cancer were admitted for surgery within 33 days, and 90% within 114 days.

Changes over time

In 2024–25, patients with a cancer-related principal diagnosis had a higher median waiting time (23 days) than in 2020–21 (22 days). The median waiting time for patients with other diagnoses was lower in 2024–25 (60 days) than 2020–21 (63 days).