Hospital waiting times remain high, new Productivity Commission data reveals
As part of the Report on Government Services, the Productivity Commission has published its latest national health figures.
Providing data directly from all Australian governments on the equity, efficiency and effectiveness of the services they provide, the Report on Government Services is produced by the Productivity Commission, with its latest data release — Part E Health — including primary and community health, ambulance services, public hospitals and services for mental health.
Released on 5 February 2026, the data shows that the overall proportion of patients ‘seen on time’ in 2024–25 remains similar to 2023–24, with 67% of patients seen within the clinically recommended times for their triage category — a figure that is lower than in 2015–16 (74%).
Improvement was seen in elective surgery waiting times, but remains high — with 50% of patients admitted within 45 days in 2024–25 (down from 46 days in 2023–24) and 90% of patients admitted within 329 days (which constitutes no change from 2023–24); waiting times that are higher than they were 10 years ago (38 days for 50% of patients and 263 days for 90% of patients in 2015–16).
Australians delaying GP visits due to cost saw its first improvement since 2020–21, but at 7.7% in 2024–25 remains higher than 10 years ago (4.1% in 2015–16). Regarding respondents who delayed seeing any mental health professional in the last 12 months due to cost, this national figure in 2024–25 was 19.7% — a slight improvement from 2023–24 (20.4%).
The data also reveals that across all age groups the proportions of children fully immunised in 2024–25 were among the lowest over the reported time series. Across all states and territories, increases in whooping cough cases were also reported, with 792.1 notifications of whooping cough per 100,000 children in 2024-25 — the highest since records began in 1991; a situation that may be influenced by several factors, including waning immunity, decreasing vaccination coverage and reduced exposure of the overall population to whooping cough during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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