When you arrive at the emergency room (ED) today, screening. This is a quick determination of how urgently you need treatment. People in crisis are found quickly, while others may wait hours.
10 years ago, three quarters (74%) Among emergency patients in public hospitals Clinically Recommended Time By a nurse, doctor or other health care professional upon arrival. Now only two thirds (67%) of patients receive care on time.
The same pattern appears in elective surgery. Ten years ago, the average wait time was: 35 days Between your doctor deciding you need surgery and having the surgery. today 45 days. Some people wait for over a year.
longer waiting time reflect Balancing service demand, staffing supply, beds and theater hours, and how hospitals efficiently coordinate care and discharge patients through the system.
Let’s see who waits the longest.
How quickly should patients be seen in the emergency room?
For all patients arriving at the emergency room Classification Category based on emergency:
- resuscitation: Requires immediate medical attention within seconds (e.g. during cardiac arrest).
- emergency: Must be confirmed within 10 minutes (e.g. if heart attack or stroke is suspected).
- urgent: Within 30 minutes (symptoms such as high blood pressure and persistent vomiting)
- semi-emergency: Within 1 hour (e.g. minor head injury, non-specific abdominal pain, etc.)
- not urgent: Within 2 hours (in case of low-risk symptoms or minor wounds)
The number of emergency room patients receiving treatment on time has decreased compared to 10 years ago.
On-time performance has been down for most of the past decade, but there has been a slight rebound since 2023-24 after the previous year’s low.
However, the average wait time changed little over the same period, remaining the same at 18 minutes. This is partly because there are more patients in the “urgent” category and fewer patients categorized as “non-urgent.”
However, most people who go to the emergency room do not have a life-threatening condition. Last year there were 9.1 million presentations. Resuscitation was performed in only 0.96% (86,831 cases). Almost all patients received immediate medical attention.
How ED Wait Times Compare in the States and Territories
In 2024-5, there were 1.6 million cases in the “urgent” category. New South Wales and Queensland performed relatively well, with around three quarters of emergencies appearing within the 10-minute target.
In contrast, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory lag behind in punctuality rates by half or just below.
The largest patient groups were “urgent” (3.8 million) and “semi-urgent” (3 million) presentations, which accounted for about three-quarters of emergency room activity.
Western Australia, where many emergency patients occur, had the lowest rate of patients receiving treatment within 30 minutes, with less than one-third receiving treatment within 30 minutes.
Most “non-urgent” patients were treated on time, but performance for semi-urgent patients fell below 50% in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
What about elective surgery? How do queues work?
elective surgery is planned surgery It may be medically necessary and urgent, but is not the result of an emergency room presentation.
These are categorized Depending on the level of urgency based on Clinically Recommended Duration For surgery:
- Category 1: Within 30 days. The condition may worsen quickly and require emergency treatment (for example, amputation of a limb or malignant skin lesions).
- Category 2: Within 90 days. Includes conditions that cause pain, dysfunction, or disability (such as a hernia or nerve compression).
- Category 3: Within 1 year. Includes conditions that cause pain, dysfunction, or disability but are unlikely to worsen quickly (such as knee replacement or cataract extraction).
Waiting times for surgery are longer than 10 years ago
Median number of people waiting for elective surgery in public hospitals over the past 10 years rose slightlyIn 2024-25, it will change from 35 days to approximately 45 days.
The bigger story is in the tail. The proportion of patients waiting more than a year for surgery has tripled, from about 2% a decade ago to about 6% now, and peaked at nearly 10% in 2022-23 as hospitals deal with the post-COVID-19 backlog.
Median latency is currently fairly stable, but the much longer latency tail points to ongoing backlog pressure consistent with demand exceeding available capacity.
How do states compare elective surgery performance?
Performance varies across Australia.
Last year, almost all category 1 patients (those requiring surgery within 30 days) received timely treatment in Victoria (100%) and New South Wales (99%), but only about two-thirds (66%) in Tasmania.
For category 2 procedures (within 90 days), on-time admission rates ranged from approximately 79% in NSW to 53% in Tasmania and 52% in the ACT.
For less urgent category 3 cases, results were more consistent, with most states approving around 80-87% on time, except the ACT (69%) and NT (72%).
In public hospitals, it seems like everyone is waiting – emergency treatment, elective surgery, ward admission. Private hospitals are also experiencing difficulties. In this five-part series, experts explain what goes wrong, how patients are affected, and potential solutions.
Why do patients wait so long? And what does ‘bed block’ actually mean?
almost 1/3 of patients with erectile dysfunction be admitted to hospital; More than half of people are over 65 years old.
Some public hospital patients stay in the hospital long after they are medically ready to be discharged. They are waiting for elderly care or disability support placement.
If the ward is full, it cannot accommodate new patients. bed block. This can cause a chain reaction. Emergency rooms are backed up, ambulances are left waiting (“ramping”) for patients, and staff do not have enough capacity to treat newly arrived patients.
But bed pressure doesn’t just come from emergency rooms. Increasing chronic diseases and Potentially Preventable Hospitalization Add to hospital needs.
Meanwhile, hospitals facing bed pressure due to elective surgery backlogs may be more likely to delay surgeries.
That is, bed blockages and ambulance commitments reflect system-wide mismatches between hospital demand (acute, chronic and elective care) and supply (hospital beds, community care and discharge capacity).
Emergency rooms, elective surgery waiting lists, and ultimately consequences can result. Patient Treatment and Outcomes.
What will help?
There is no single solution to the long waiting times at public hospitals. The challenges span demand, supply and system design.
On the demand side, Australia Lagging behind other high-income countries As per capita spending on prevention increases, many risk factors and chronic conditions may become mismanaged and turn into serious illnesses. Preventable Hospitalization.
research discover Older Australians who live alone or have subtle cognitive impairments may miss GP appointments, diagnostic appointments or allied health support, which can mean small problems can become emergencies.
Urgent care clinics can help keep some less urgent cases out of emergency rooms, but final evaluation Still pending.
Innovative care programs including: Remote monitoring of heart failure patients It also shows how technology can keep people comfortable at home.
On the supply side, securing capacity is as important as building it. In some states 8-10% of hospitalization days in public hospitals It houses patients waiting for elderly care or disability support.
Investments in step-down, respite care and rapid aged care placement will use up other capacity in the system to “unblock” discharge pathways.
Hospital staffing shortages and burnout remain major barriers. A recent funding boost will help, but a sustained staffing and training pipeline is essential for sustained gains.
At the hospital level, efficiency is important. transparent Resource Priorityconsistent Clinical scoringand Protected elective surgery Streams can reduce bottlenecks.
Ultimately, clearing your queue means preventing the preventable, unblocking what’s stuck, and managing what’s left efficiently and transparently.
Learn more about our Hospitals in Crisis series here.
