Thousands on NSW elective surgery waitlists longer than recommended, data shows
Elective surgery waitlists in New South Wales have blown out, with a major increase in the number of overdue operations.
The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) released its latest quarterly report for January-March 2025 which revealed 8,587 people waited longer for their surgery than clinically recommended.
That is a rise of 151.3 per cent, or 5,170 patients, compared with the same period in 2024.
"[That's] quite a substantial increase from the same time a year ago," BHI senior director Hilary Rowell said.
Some of the patients who faced delays had been referred for the most urgent surgery, classified as category one, which is meant to be completed within 30 days.
"There were five patients in the urgent category who were overdue for their surgery," Ms Rowell said.
The report also revealed 3,464 people waited longer than recommended for their semi-urgent surgery which is meant to be completed within 90 days.
Among those who were ready to undergo non-urgent operations — due to be done within one year — 5,118 were overdue for their surgery.
The majority of NSW's local health districts (LHDs) reported an increase in the number of surgical patients waiting longer than clinically recommended.
South Eastern Sydney LHD recorded the highest rise, with 1,657 people facing delays — an increase of 1,338 on the same period in 2024.
Western Sydney LHD reported an increase of 1,023 — resulting in 1,350 people waiting longer than they should.
Sydney Children's Hospital Network had 253 overdue surgeries, which is a rise of 164.
The Hunter New England LHD experienced the biggest hike amongst regional LHDs, with 1,249 waiting longer than they should — an increase of 720.
Nepean Blue Mountains LHD was the only health service which saw a decrease.
There were 188 people waiting for their overdue operations at the end of the quarter — a decline of 230 from 418 in the January-March quarter of 2024.
The report came after surgeons at Orange Health Service (OHS) revealed they had been asked to reduce the urgency category of cancer operations so they do not breach waitlist targets.
The Western NSW LHD rejected the claims.
The latest figures show 38 people waited longer at OHS than they should during the latest quarter which is an increase of 38 on the same period last year.
The BHI report showed that almost 53,000 surgeries were performed during the quarter, up 3.6 per cent.
Despite this increase, there were 100,678 people still on the waitlist at the end of the quarter — a rise of 7.3 per cent.
This is just below the record peak of 101,024 reported during the COVID pandemic.
"We saw the list gradually decrease down to the end of 2023 and then we've seen it gradually ticking up since then," Ms Rowell said.
Australian Medical Association NSW vice president Fred Betros said extra resources were added to clear the backlog of patients waiting longer than the maximum time clinically recommended after the pandemic, including sending patients to the private sector.
The number of patients waiting longer than clinically recommended fell to 1,857 patients in the second quarter of last year.
"The problem is our increased commitment of resources is being exceeded by the rate of growth," he said.
Dr Betros said many specialists are working in the private sector where they can earn more money.
"One of the perpetual problems we have right now in the public sector is certainly for elective surgery, is lack of anaesthetists who are willing to work in the public sector," he said.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the government was investing $23 million to reduce overdue surgeries as part of the 2025-26 budget.
The funding would go to engaging more staff, purchasing more consumables, expanding weekend theatre rostering and engaging private providers.
He said he expects this investment — combined with $186.4 million for hospital capacity announced in December — will begin to "bear fruit over the next quarter".
However, the minister pointed to challenges that contributed to the increase, including ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred that disrupted services in northern NSW and the Mid North Coast alongside a rise in chronic illness, longer life expectancy as well as workforce availability challenges.
"We made significant progress in reducing the overdue surgeries that we inherited, down from 14,000. But we know there's always more that we can do to improve the accessibility of planned surgeries," Mr Park said.
"The health system is always going to be under pressure, particularly with elective surgery. We have got it down low, we're seeing a creep up now."
He previously established a Surgical Care Taskforce to improve the delivery of surgical services and reduce elective waitlists.
When it first met in May 2023, Mr Park said he wanted it to "look at measures to reduce the backlog of elective surgeries".
The BHI's latest report also presents data on attendances to public hospital emergency departments (ED).
Between January and March there were 785,266 people who went to an ED, which is a decline of 3.1 per cent on the same period last year.
The BHI said fewer patients with non-urgent conditions were presenting to emergency.
"Within that we did see that EDs are continuing to see a reduction in patients with the less urgent clinical conditions, so those are the moderate triage category four patients, down 6 per cent, and the non-urgent triage category five patients which were down 12 per cent," Ms Rowell said.
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