Tasmania has Australia's longest elective surgery waiting time

Tasmania’s elective surgery waiting times in public hospitals has been ranked the worst in the country according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The report found that overall Australian hospitals had improved median patient waiting times from 36 days to 35 days in the financial year 2013-14 to 2014-15. Queensland’s median topped the list at 27 days with Tasmanian patients waiting 55 days for surgery.

The surgical specialties with the longest median waiting times in 2014-15 were Ear, nose and throat surgery, ophthalmology, and orthopaedic surgery (73, 70, and 64 days, respectively). Cardio-thoracic surgery had the shortest median waiting times (18 days).

Coronary artery bypass graft was the procedure with the shortest median waiting time (14 days) and Septoplasty had the longest median waiting time (214 days).

The report also found that the median waiting time for Indigenous Australians was higher than for other Australians (42 days compared with 35 days), and that the proportion of Indigenous Australians who waited more than a year was higher than for other Australians (2.3% compared with 1.8%).

AIHW senior executive Jenny Hargreaves said several measures were used to test waiting times including:

-median waiting time - the time it took 50% of patients to have their surgery

-number of days it took for 90% of people to have surgery

In 2014-15, Australia's public hospitals admitted almost 698,000 patients from elective surgery waiting lists.