Additions, removals and admissions
See Table 2.1, 2.2 and S2.1 for caveat information on these data. Available to download from the Data section of this report.
Changes over time
Between 2013–14 and 2017–18:
- the total number of admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists increased from 699,000 to 749,000, an average annual increase of 1.7%.
- Principal referral and women’s and children’s hospitals and Public acute group A hospitals had the highest average annual increase, 2.2% and 2.0% respectively
- the number of admissions per 1,000 population was relatively stable, rising by 0.2% on average each year
- Emergency admissions from elective surgery waiting lists increased an average of 2.2% per year; they decreased by 12% between 2016–17 and 2017-18.
Admissions in 2017–18
In 2017–18, there were about 749,000 admissions from elective surgery waiting lists, 99% of which were elective admissions.
Together, Principal referral and women’s and children’s hospitals and Public acute group A hospitals accounted for three‑quarters of these admissions (40% and 35%, respectively).
Admissions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
In 2017–18, about 3.7% of admissions from public hospital elective surgery waiting lists (27,500) were reported for people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin who represent about 3.0% of the Australian population.
The quality of the data reported for Indigenous status in elective surgery waiting lists has not been formally assessed. Therefore, the information on Indigenous status presented in this report should be interpreted with caution. See Appendix A for more information.
Where to go for more information
See Table 2.3 for more information on admissions by peer group, Table 2.4 for more information on admission rates per 1,000 population. See table 2.9 for more information about Admissions by Indigenous status. These tables are available to download from the data section.
Information on waiting times is available in the Waiting times section.
Information on data limitations and methods is available in Appendix A and Appendix B.