--- title: Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category, Australia resource: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/ publisher: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare licence: CC BY 4.0 licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ version: 2026-10-03 rows: 12159 fields: 11 source: https://myhospitalsapi.aihw.gov.au/api/v1/measure-downloads/myh-es source_sha256: 696cfb20ab6fbcb1444b1d9791899d49bd89223b68f936bb657f32263642db7d language: en-AU operator: National Digital not_endorsed: true --- # Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category, Australia Median waiting times for elective surgery and the share treated within the recommended time, for each public hospital and network by urgency category each year since 2011-12, from AIHW MyHospitals. Published by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare under CC BY 4.0 and republished here in other formats, with cells typed and suppressed values made null. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has not endorsed this site. Also called: Surgery waiting list times by hospital, Elective surgery median wait days, Public hospital surgery wait times Australia, Percentage of elective surgery within recommended time. ## Download Latest version, redirects to `https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/`: - csv: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.csv (1.5 MB) - xlsx: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.xlsx (593 KB) - json: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.json (4.2 MB) - parquet: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.parquet (69 KB) - sqlite: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.sqlite (2.5 MB) - duckdb: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.duckdb (600 KB) - ndjson: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.ndjson (4.2 MB) - arrow: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.arrow (289 KB) - csv.gz: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.csv.gz (146 KB) Pinned version 2026-10-03: `https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/data.`. Dated versions never change. ## Query The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Rows: https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/rows. Counts and sums: https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/aggregate. - Rows: https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/rows?year=eq.2024%E2%80%9325&reporting_unit_type=eq.Hospital&urgency_category=eq.Non-urgent%20elective%20surgery&limit=5 - Aggregate: https://publicdata.au/api/v1/datasets/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/aggregate?group=reporting_unit&metric=max.median_wait_days&year=eq.2024%E2%80%9325&reporting_unit_type=eq.Hospital&urgency_category=eq.Non-urgent%20elective%20surgery Each filter is `field=operator.value` in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive except with `ilike`. Prefix `not.` to negate a filter, as `not.eq.value`. Operators: `eq.value`, `neq.value`, `gt.value`, `gte.value`, `lt.value`, `lte.value`, `like.*text*`, `ilike.*text*`, `in.(a,b,c)`, `is.null`. - `select`: Fields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent. - `order`: `field.asc` or `field.desc`, comma-separated. The publisher's row order when absent. - `limit`: Rows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent. - `offset`: Rows to skip. The `next` URL in each answer sets it for you. - `group`: On `aggregate`, fields to group by, comma-separated. - `metric`: On `aggregate`, `count`, `sum.field`, `avg.field`, `min.field` or `max.field`, comma-separated. `count` when absent. - `format`: `json`, `ndjson` or `csv`. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers. Without a version the API answers from the newest loaded version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put `versions//` before `rows` or `aggregate` for an answer that never changes. `/api/v1/datasets//versions` lists the loaded versions. The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a `Retry-After` header, a `RateLimit-Policy` header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same `RateLimit-Policy`. A client should wait the `Retry-After` seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. OpenAPI for this dataset: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/openapi.json ## Explore Charts and dashboards in the browser: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/explore/. A dashboard can be shared as a link or embedded. ## Smaller files - by `state`: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/by/state/index.json lists 8 files ## Fields | field | type | publisher's header | note | |---|---|---|---| | `reporting_unit` | string | Reporting unit | | | `reporting_unit_type` | string | Reporting unit type | | | `state` | string | State | | | `peer_group` | string | Peer group | | | `year` | string | Year | | | `urgency_category` | string | Urgency category | | | `surgeries` | integer | Number of surgeries | | | `median_wait_days` | integer | Median waiting time (days) | | | `peer_group_median_days` | integer | Peer group median (days) | | | `share_within_recommended_time` | number | Percentage of surgeries within recommended time | The fraction of surgeries done within the recommended time, 0.95 for 95 per cent. | | `peer_group_average` | number | Peer group average | | Key: `reporting_unit, reporting_unit_type, year, urgency_category`. ## Versions - 2026-10-03: 12159 rows, 11 fields, sha256 696cfb20ab6f. https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/ Machine-readable: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/versions.json, https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/changes.json, https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/datapackage.json, https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/schema.json, https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/history.tar.zst ## Part of AIHW MyHospitals - [Hospitals, Local Hospital Networks and Primary Health Networks in MyHospitals, Australia](https://publicdata.au/d/au-hospitals-myhospitals/) - [Emergency department patients seen on time by hospital and triage category, Australia](https://publicdata.au/d/au-ed-patients-seen-on-time/) ## Same subject, other publishers - [Elective surgery by urgency category and hospital, Queensland, September quarter 2025](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-elective-surgery-by-category/) (Qld) - [People waiting and median waits in emergency departments, Queensland, live](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-emergency-department-waits-now/) (Qld) - [Public dental waiting lists by clinic, Queensland, latest quarter](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-public-dental-waiting-lists/) (Qld) - [Elective surgery by specialty and hospital, Queensland, September quarter 2025](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-elective-surgery-by-specialty/) (Qld) - [Emergency department busyness by day and hour, Queensland](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-emergency-department-busyness/) (Qld) - [Public hospital emergency departments and minor injury clinics, Queensland, live list](https://publicdata.au/d/qld-emergency-department-facilities/) (Qld) - [Public hospital locations, South Australia](https://publicdata.au/d/sa-public-hospitals/) (SA) - [Private hospital locations, South Australia](https://publicdata.au/d/sa-private-hospitals/) (SA) - [Ambulance Victoria response times by council area, 2018-19](https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-lga/) (Vic) - [Ambulance Victoria response times by town and city, 2017-18](https://publicdata.au/d/vic-ambulance-response-times-by-town/) (Vic) - [Measles public exposure sites, Victoria](https://publicdata.au/d/vic-measles-exposure-sites/) (Vic) ## Attribution and citation Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australian Government, MyHospitals Data API, elective surgery waiting times data extract, sourced 3 October 2026, https://myhospitalsapi.aihw.gov.au/, licensed under CC BY 4.0. The licence requires the publisher's attribution. We ask that you also name publicdata.au and link to the version you used. Plain text: Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australian Government, MyHospitals Data API, elective surgery waiting times data extract, sourced 3 October 2026, https://myhospitalsapi.aihw.gov.au/, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Serialised and versioned by National Digital at publicdata.au, https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/ Harvard: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2026) Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category, Australia, version 2026-10-03 [data set], CC BY 4.0, sourced 3 October 2026. Serialised and versioned by National Digital at publicdata.au. Available at: https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/ Markdown: Data: [AIHW MyHospitals](https://www.aihw.gov.au/copyright), Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), sourced 3 October 2026. Files: [publicdata.au](https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/) by [National Digital](https://nationaldigital.com.au/). ## Questions ### How do I download Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category as a CSV file? Open https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, NDJSON, Arrow. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same. ### Can I open Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category in Excel? Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 12,159 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size. ### What years does Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category cover? The current version covers the years since 2011. Each release from AIHW becomes a new dated version here, and earlier versions stay online. ### How often is Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category updated? AIHW releases it several times a year. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes. ### Can I use Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category commercially? Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file. ### Is this the official source for Elective surgery waiting times by hospital and urgency category? No. The publisher is Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, and its page is https://www.aihw.gov.au/copyright. This site republishes the publisher's file without changing its content. The original sits beside every version as source.xlsx with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared. ### How do I get only the rows for one state? Every version has one JSON file per value of state, 8 files in the current version, listed with row counts at https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/by/state/index.json. For example https://publicdata.au/d/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times/v/2026-10-03/by/state/nsw.json holds the 4,263 rows where state is NSW. ### What is in each row? One public hospital or Local Hospital Network, one financial year from 2011-12 and one urgency category. It gives the number of elective surgeries, the median days waited, the share of patients treated within the recommended time, and the peer group's median and average beside them. ### What are the urgency categories? The treating doctor assigns each patient to urgent (surgery recommended within 30 days), semi-urgent (within 90 days) or non-urgent (within 365 days). The Institute notes that states and hospitals assign the categories differently, which affects comparisons. ### What do the blanks mean? The Institute writes <5 for a count under five and NP where the data did not meet its criteria. Those cells are null here with a suppressed flag. A dash, meaning no patients were reported, and Not peered are null. The share within recommended time is a fraction, so 0.95 means 95 per cent. ## What this site did to the data Cells were typed, headers were renamed to snake_case and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. Nothing is derived. The publisher's file is beside every version as `source.xlsx`. ## Improve this dataset This page is built from [register/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times.yaml](https://github.com/National-Digital/publicdata.au/blob/main/register/au-elective-surgery-waiting-times.yaml) on GitHub, and a fix to it is welcome as a pull request. https://publicdata.au/contribute/ explains how.