New South Wales health system performance May 2025 Report: Longest Wait Across Australia for Cataract Surgery - Hip, Knee replacements - Wait time for semi-urgent surgery at NBH rises to 59 days
BHI Chief Executive Dr Diane Watson said Healthcare in Focus – NSW health system performance examines performance in areas including wait times, patient safety and clinical outcomes.
“Healthcare systems worldwide have been impacted in recent years by the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr Watson. “In response, the NSW health system is seeking opportunities to adapt to new challenges.”
One of those challenges is climate change which is having escalating impacts on human health, and healthcare systems themselves have a high carbon footprint. Healthcare in Focus includes new data on patients' views and expectations in relation to the environmental sustainability of their healthcare, based on results from BHI's online survey of NSW patients discharged from a public hospital in late 2024.
The results show that around nine in 10 patients supported NSW Health and its hospitals providing health services in more environmentally sustainable ways. More than eight in 10 are willing to personally take action, including by receiving treatment in the community rather than in hospital; taking more environmentally friendly prescription medications; and returning unused medicines for appropriate disposal.
“Patients have given us actionable insights into how health services can implement change to increase the resilience and sustainability of NSW health services for the future,” said Dr Watson.
The report also shows that in the context of high demand for hospital services, NSW performs well in terms of access to care and wait times.
For example, in NSW public hospitals in 2023–24, more emergency department patients were seen on time and more patients had their elective surgeries performed within clinically recommended timeframes than in any other Australian state or territory.
However, NSW had the longest median wait times for common procedures including cataract surgery, and knee and hip replacements.
In NSW in 2023–24, the median waiting time for cataract surgery was 262 days. This was the longest of all Australian states and territories and 143 days longer than the national median.
In NSW in 2023–24, the median waiting time for hip replacement surgery was 225 days. This was the longest of all Australian states and territories and 90 days longer than the national median.
In NSW in 2023–24, the median waiting time for knee replacement surgery was 321 days. This was the longest of all Australian states and territories and 56 days longer than the national median.
In terms of complications after surgery – an important indicator of patient safety – NSW’s performance was mixed. While NSW rates for some common post-operative complications (e.g. deep vein thrombosis and sepsis) were lower than the national rate, they were higher than in most comparable OECD countries (where data were available).
Healthcare in Focus contains new data in relation to mortality across NSW public and private hospitals – a key patient outcome measure. For six common clinical conditions (including heart attacks, strokes and pneumonia) as well as hip fracture surgery, there was a notable decline in the mortality rate following 30 days of admission to NSW hospitals between 2016 and 2024.
“This positive trend points to year-on-year improvements in terms of timely, high-quality care for these patients,” said Dr Watson.
The report also considers indicators of the adaptability of the NSW health system in response to current challenges. It shows that NSW has effectively established virtual care as an alternative care model that is successfully providing additional support to vulnerable patients. For example, five to six in 10 patients hospitalised with a heart attack or congestive heart failure receive either an in-person or virtual care follow-up within 30 days of discharge from a public hospital, up from one in 10 in 2019.
Download the May 2025 Report: Healthcare in Focus – NSW health system performance
AMA (NSW) president Dr Kathryn Austin said ''It is not surprising to see staff engagement levels across NSW hospitals at their lowest in eight years in today’s Bureau of Health Information’s annual report on NSW health system performance.''
''In some local health districts, only half of staff report feeling connected, motivated or valued by management.
''This is a direct result of dedicated doctors, and their colleagues, forced to do more with less every day in an under-resourced public hospital system, and being paid less than their counterparts in other states.''
''The Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding, released this week, found that while NSW has a strong health system, urgent funding and award reform are needed to retain and recruit a skilled medical workforce to ensure we can continue to provide high quality care to patients.''
''We must urgently address these issues and stop relying on the goodwill of our incredible health workforce in propping up an ailing system.'' Dr. Austin said.
The BHI website also allows residents to delve into the data for their local hospital across key essentials such as Emergency Department, Elective Surgery and Admitted Patients data.
The details for the Northern Beaches Hospital for the Oct–Dec 2024 quarter show:
Emergency department
- ED attendances: 16,341 - down 2.2% compared with same quarter previous year
- Patients starting ED treatment on time: 70.8% - down 0.2 percentage points compared with same quarter previous year
- Patients leaving ED within four hours: 46.6% - down 4.0 percentage points compared with same quarter previous year
- Arrivals to the ED by ambulance: 4,479 - down 1.2% compared with same quarter previous year
- Patients transferred from paramedics to ED staff within 30 minutes: 90.4% - up 5.3 percentage points compared with same quarter previous year
Elective surgery Activity and performance Oct–Dec 2024
- Elective surgeries performed: 903 - down 8.5% compared with same quarter previous year
- Patients on the elective surgery waiting list at end of quarter: 1,358 - up 10.7% compared with same quarter previous year
- Patients waiting longer than recommended for elective surgery at end of quarter: no data - Not comparable with same quarter previous year
- Elective surgeries performed on time: 99.9% - down 0.1 percentage points compared with same quarter previous year
- Median waiting time for urgent elective surgery: 9 days - down 2 days compared with same quarter previous year
- Median waiting time for semi-urgent elective surgery: 59 days - up 9 days compared with same quarter previous year
- Median waiting time for non-urgent elective surgery: 314 days - up 47 days compared with same quarter previous year
Admitted patients Activity and performance Oct–Dec 2024
- Admitted patient episodes of care: 7,410 - up 3.6% compared with same quarter previous year
- Average length of stay for overnight admitted patient episodes of care: 4.7 days -up 0.3 days compared with same quarter previous year
- Babies born in public hospitals: 333 - down 5.7% compared with same quarter previous year