Planned surgery Performance

Planned surgery performance

This page provides insights into the operational performance of planned surgeries, including the number of people on the waiting list, expected waiting times and adherence to clinical care recommendations.

Waiting time to access planned surgeries

Patients waiting for planned surgeries may experience wait times before receiving their surgery. The wait times depend on the demand for each speciality, hospital resourcing, and the urgency of the patient's symptoms or health condition.

Waiting list performance

The time a patient spends on a waiting list for a planned surgery is guided by three urgency categories, which provide an indication of the clinically recommended timeframes for a patient to receive surgery.

In addition to being assigned an urgency category, a patient will also be classified as either ready, or not ready for surgery. A patient who is ‘not ready for surgery’ is one someone who is not clinically ready or chooses to not proceed with their surgery at the time the data was captured.

Queensland Health report the percentage of patients who were seen in the recommended time for their urgency category. The higher the percentage, the better the performance. In some specialties there are a higher number of patients waiting to receive their planned surgery, which may result in patients waiting longer than clinically recommended.

Patients treated in turn

The ‘Treated in Turn’ model of care advocates for patients in each urgency category being treated in the same order that they are placed on the waiting list for planned surgery. This aims to ensure equitable access to planned surgery and increase predictability of the time that patients wait.

There are several reasons why a patient may not be treated in turn. Not all patients allocated an urgency category (1-3) are waiting for the same procedure or have the same medical needs. Additionally, there may be varying levels of urgency within the same category and a patient's medical urgency may change during their time on the waitlist.

Queensland Health aims to balance clinical need with equity of access by setting a target of a minimum of 60% of category 2 and 3 patients receive treatment in waiting time order.