Nearing the peak: NSW elective surgery waiting list figures

Figures released today by the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) of NSW’s public health services activity and performance reveal that the elective surgery waiting list is nearing its COVID-19 peak. The quarterly figures do show an increase in elective surgeries performed in NSW public hospitals — 52,973, which is up 3.6% compared with the same quarter in 2024 — however, despite this, at the end of March the patients on the elective surgery waiting list were also up — by 7.3%, to 100,678, which is an additional 6881 patients. It’s a figure just short of the record peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, BHI has revealed.

Also revealed in BHI’s Healthcare Quarterly report is that of those patients on the list waiting surgery at the end of March, 8587 had waited longer than clinically recommended, which constitutes an additional 5170 patients, or 151.3% increase, from the same time a year earlier. Semi-urgent surgery patients typically waited more than a week longer for their surgery than a year earlier, which was up 9 days to 65 days; while non-urgent surgery patients typically waited about a month longer, up 32 days to 322 days.

Other trends from the data included: that ED attendances were down from the same time a year earlier, to 3.1% — numbering 785,266; that ambulance responses were also down, to 4.5% — 366,146; and that the median response time for ‘life threatening (CAT 1)’ responses was stable, at 8.3 minutes.

Second report

A second report has also been released by BHI, providing insight into the experiences of more than 12,000 patients of virtual care services (via telephone or video call) with NSW public hospital outpatient clinics, 2020–2024. Information on outpatients’ experiences with virtual care with GPs is also included in this report.

The second report showed that outpatient services delivered through virtual care in 2024 was up, being 18% compared with 12% in 2019. It was observed that, over time, patients were increasingly likely to say that virtual care ‘definitely’ helped them (72% in 2024, up from 67% in 2020) and that they would ‘definitely’ use it again if given the choice (47%, up from 37%). Patients who mainly spoke a language other than English at home, had a longstanding health condition or had a university postgraduate degree or higher, however, were significantly less likely to rate their virtual care, overall, as ‘very good’.

Detailed results of both reports can be found at www.bhi.nsw.gov.au.

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