Introduction

Elective surgery is planned surgery that can be booked in advance as a result of a specialist clinical assessment, resulting in placement on an elective surgery waiting list. (METeOR identifier 568780)

Elective surgery waiting times 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics focuses on information about public hospital elective surgery waiting lists. It continues the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) Australian hospital statistics series of annual reports describing the characteristics and activity of Australia’s hospitals.

This report presents information on elective surgery waiting times for public hospitals for the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018. It includes information on overall activity and nationally agreed performance indicators for waiting times. It also includes comparative information for the previous 4 reporting periods.

The data presented are sourced from the AIHW’s National Elective Surgery Waiting Times Data Collection (NESWTDC). The NESWTDC provides episode-level data on patients added to or removed from elective surgery waiting lists managed by public hospitals.