Elective Surgery Waitlists ‘Blow Out’ to Near COVID Peak in NSW

Data showed a 220.8 percent increase in patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for elective surgery.

A New South Wales ambulance paramedic transports a patient to the Emergency Department of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia on June 4, 2020. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Elective surgery wait times in New South Wales (NSW) have surged to levels last seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking criticism from the Opposition.

The Liberal and National Party said the health system was under “unprecedented strain” with more than 800,000 emergency department presentations.

A Bureau of Health Information (BHI) report, released on March 19, reveals that 100,235 patients were on the waiting list for surgery in NSW at the end of December 2024 (pdf), up 13.1 percent from a year ago.

Additionally, 6,842 patients had waited longer than clinically recommended, marking a staggering 220.8 percent rise compared to December 2023.

The report also found that the number of elective surgeries performed declined to 54,966 in the October-December 2024 quarter, down 7.5 percent compared to the same quarter one year ago.

Opposition Criticises Government

The NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman said elective surgery waiting lists had returned to levels seen during the height of the pandemic.

“Chris Minns came to government promising to cut elective surgery waiting lists, but has only managed to cut the health budget,” Speakman said.

Shadow Health Minister Kellie  Sloane also condemned the government’s handling of the situation, arguing that patients and frontline staff are paying the price.

“We can’t afford more spin while people continue to wait in pain,” she said.

Government Defends Progress

In response, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park defended the government’s record, pointing to data that some of the busiest emergency departments in Australia had seen “significant reductions” in hospital ramping.

Ramping refers to the situation where ambulances are delayed in transferring patients to the emergency department (ED) due to overcrowding.

The BHI report showed that 83.4 percent of patients who arrived by ambulance were transferred to ED staff within 30 minutes, up 3.5 percent from the previous year. Hospitals with notable improvements included:

• St George Hospital: 25 percentage point improvement
• Blacktown Hospital: 23.2 percentage point improvement.
• Campbelltown Hospital: 9.3 percentage point improvement
• Liverpool Hospital: 7.2 percentage point improvement

“65.3 percent of all patients who attended the ED started their treatment on time—up 3.9 percentage points from the record low in the preceding quarter,” the BHI report showed.

Minister Park acknowledged ongoing challenges but emphasised that the government had made a 500 million investment to relieve emergency departments.

“I’m pleased to see encouraging progress in our effort to reduce ramping, but I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves, because there is still much more to do,” he said.

“I do want to reiterate that people who present to hospitals with non-life-threatening conditions can still expect to wait long periods in the ED.”

Meanwhile, NSW Premier Chris Minns claimed he had brought down elective surgery wait times by more than 65 percent.

“It’s still higher than what we want, and we’re working hard to bring it down more,” Minns said in a LinkedIn post.

Patients Leaving EDs Without Treatment

Despite improvements in ramping, the report raised concerns over a growing number of patients leaving emergency departments without treatment or before completing treatment.

In the December quarter, 67,902 patients left before receiving full care, an increase of 5.9 percent from the previous year.

“The number of these patients has increased by 32 percent since 2019. The growth in the volume of this group of patients has outpaced the growth in overall ED attendances,” the report noted.

The data noted that while urgent cases were more likely to receive care, many non-life-threatening patients faced long wait times.

“Regardless of the time of day they arrived in the ED, the median time to leaving the ED for patients who left without, or before completing, treatment was between 2 and 2.5 hours.”