Tasmania sets target allowing up to 30% of patients to wait longer for elective surgery
Tasmania’s Department of Health in Australia has revised its target for elective surgeries: the share of patients waiting longer than the clinically recommended period must not exceed 30%. This means that at least 70% of patients must undergo surgery within the timeframes set by doctors, ABC News Australia reports.
About 9,500 people in the state are on the waiting list for elective surgery. In last year’s plan, the target was defined not as a percentage but by the number of patients: no more than 270 people were to wait longer than the recommended period.
Current indicators
According to the latest data for July, 59% of elective surgeries were performed within the clinically recommended timeframe. In July of the previous year, this figure was 64%, meaning the result has worsened.
Meg Creely, president of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Medical Association, called the new target insufficiently ambitious. She also said that changing the way indicators are measured between annual plans makes it more difficult for medical professionals and the public to assess the performance of the healthcare system. In her view, waiting lists could widen the gap between people who can afford private healthcare and those who do not use it.
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Urgent surgeries
Elective surgeries in Tasmania are divided into three categories. The first, urgent category includes procedures that must be performed within 30 days. In July, 65% of patients in this category were admitted within the recommended timeframe. The new plan provides for 95% of such surgeries to be performed on time.
Patients in the second, semi-urgent category must be treated within 90 days, while those in the third, non-urgent category must be treated within 365 days. In its 2026–2027 plan, the health service expects to perform more than 21,500 elective surgeries, about 400 fewer than last year.
A department representative explained the revision of the target by growing demand for surgeries, the system’s capacity and problems with the availability of hospital beds. According to the representative, this is affected by a shortage of places in aged care facilities and NDIS places for Tasmania’s residents. The state budget provides for an 8% increase in healthcare funding over four years, while the department has been tasked with finding $702 million in savings over that period.
