A waiting time was calculated for every record with a valid ready-for-care date and radiotherapy course start date (99.4% of all courses of radiotherapy that began in Australia in 2018–19; almost 73,800 records). See Box: Calculation of waiting time from ready-for-care date below, for more information. See Technical notes for details of data exclusions for waiting times calculations.
Waiting times for all patients are presented as the number of days a patient waited at the 50th and 90th percentiles:
- The 50th percentile (the median waiting time, or the middle value in a group of data arranged from lowest to highest for the number of days waited) represents the number of days within which 50% of patients began radiotherapy treatment.
- The 90th percentile data represent the number of days within which 90% of patients began treatment.
50% of all patients received treatment within 10 days of being assessed as ready for care
90% of all patients received treatment within 27 days of being assessed as ready for care
Waiting times are presented by state and territory for public providers, nationally for private providers, and in total. While the data are presented separately for public and private providers in this report, comparisons should be made with caution because some data recording practices may differ across individual sites, states and territories, and sectors, particularly in the way ready-for-care dates are set, which affects the calculation of waiting times. These differences may also reflect varying service provision arrangements between the public and private sectors (and in both sectors across jurisdictions).
Comparison of waiting times between 2013–14 and 2014–15, and subsequent years should be undertaken with caution due to differences in participation rates by private radiotherapy providers which generally report shorter waiting times. There were more submissions of data on radiotherapy courses with valid waiting times by private providers in 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 collections than in previous years.
Interactive figure 2 presents data for 2013–14 to 2018–19, by sex and by:
- age group
- top 10 principal diagnoses
- intent of treatment
- state/territory and sector
- remoteness of residence, and
- socioeconomic area of the person.
Key points for radiotherapy courses started in 2018–19
- Overall, waiting times were the same for males and females (50% treated within 10 days and 90% within 27 days).
- Waiting times (by intention of treatment) were shortest for patients receiving palliative radiotherapy (50% treated within 7 days), and were longest for patients receiving curative radiotherapy (50% within 14 days).
- 50% of people receiving non-emergency treatment were treated within 10 days, 90% within 27 days.
- For male patients with prostate cancer (25% of men), 50% started treatment within 12 days, and 90% within 34 days.
- For female patients with breast cancer (42% of females), 50% started treatment within 11 days, and 90% within 28 days.