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Elective Surgery
A major priority for the Victorian Government is reducing
the time to treatment for elective surgery patients in public
hospitals.
This section of the website provides information about treatment
times for elective surgery at individual hospitals. You and
your doctor can use this information to give you an idea
of the likely time to access surgery. It will help you to
make informed decisions and allow your doctor to better plan
the care he or she gives you.
Most elective surgery in Victoria is categorised under ten
specialities. The times for accessing 27 of the most commonly
performed procedures in these specialties are available on
this website.
The website also contains information on:
You can also search individual hospitals and view their
performance on a range of elective surgery measures. This
complements the statewide performance data published in the
full Your hospitals report.
Elective Surgery Waiting List Reduction Plan
As part of the Australian Government's Elective Surgery Waiting List Reduction Plan, the Department of Human Services has expanded the level of detail available on elective surgery waiting times. More information is now available on hospital level throughput and waiting list information.
Elective Surgery Access Policy
This Elective
Surgery Access Policy (opens in a new window) sets
out expectations and standards for health services in managing
elective surgery lists. The aim of the policy is to ensure
that Victorians waiting for surgery receive adequate communication
about their surgery, are properly managed while waiting for
surgery and can expect a consistent experience no matter
where they are listed for surgery.
Explaining elective surgery data
A number of factors are relevant when explaining elective
surgery data:
Clinical urgency
categories
Hospitals use urgency categories to schedule surgery to
make sure that patients with the greatest need are treated
first. Each patient's clinical urgency is determined by their
treating specialist.
Targets for treatment
of elective surgery patients
The Government sets targets for hospitals, in consultation
with hospital staff and clinical groups, to encourage achievement
of national standards of care. These targets aim to ensure
that public hospitals are meeting the needs of elective surgery
patients while still responding to increases in demand for
emergency care. Hospital achievement against targets for
urgent and semi-urgent elective surgery patients is monitored.
Three urgency categories are used throughout Australia:
Clinical urgency categories |
National standards
- desirable treatment times |
Targets |
1 Urgent
- Has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the
point it may become an emergency
|
Admission within 30 days |
100 per cent seen within desirable
time |
2 Semi-urgent
- Causes some pain, dysfunction or disability
- Unlikely to deteriorate quickly
- Unlikely to become an emergency
|
Admission within 90 days |
80 per cent seen within desirable
time |
3 Non-urgent
- Causes minimal or no pain, dysfunction or disability
- Unlikely to deteriorate quickly
- Unlikely to become an emergency
|
Admission some time in the future (within 365 days)
|
90 per cent seen within desirable time
|
Time to treatment
This website will provide you with the time taken for other
patients to have similar surgery over the past 12 months.
The time is the median , that is, the point at which
half of the patients had been treated and half had not.
Elective surgery lists
Data on patients whose treatment is complete is provided
on this website.
Data on patients whose elective surgery is complete is most
valuable for assessing hospital performance and is used nationally
to indicate performance by all Australian States and Territories.
Cancellation or postponement
of elective surgery
You, your hospital or your treating specialist can cancel
or postpone surgery for different reasons. For more information
on postponement of surgery, go to Frequently Asked Questions
- Are you ready for surgery? & Postponement
of surgery. |
