In this section:
Definitions
50th percentile tells you the length of time that half the people on the list have waited for surgery.
90th percentile tells you the length of time that the majority of people (90%) have been waiting for their surgery.
Admitted patients are those accepted by a hospital for inpatient care.
Average Waiting Times is the average length of time waited for surgery reported in days.
Clinical urgency categories - Once you and your surgeon have determined your need for surgery, and you have decided to have that surgeon's clinical team as a public patient, your surgeon will advise a public hospital that you need to be placed on the waiting list for surgery.
Your surgeon will also advise the hospital of the urgency of the need for surgery based on a nationally agreed scale. New categories provide some increased flexibility in waiting times:
- Category 1 - Urgent patients who require surgery within 30 days.
- Category 2 - Semi-urgent patients who require surgery within 90 days.
- Category 3 - Non-urgent patients who need surgery at some time in the future. For reporting purposes, the ACT counts these patients as requiring surgery within 365 days.
Only your surgeon can determine which category you fit into based on your clinical need. If you are concerned about the category that you have been assigned, you should see your GP to discuss your options.
Elective patients are those who require non-emergency admission to hospital, ie. admission is required but need not occur within 24 hours, and who have been placed on the hospitals waiting list.
Emergency patients are those whose clinical conditions indicate that they require admission to hospital within 24 hours.
Mean Waiting Times - the definition of mean waiting time is simply the average. This figure is calculated by adding up the waiting times for all surgical procedures performed within that month and dividing it by the number of surgical procedures during that month.
Median Waiting Times - the waiting time in days that lies in the middle of a group of waiting times arranged from lowest to highest.
Specialists are doctors who have extra qualifications in one or more clinical areas of practice. Some examples of specialists are gynaecologists, ophthalmologists and neurosurgeons.
Specialty is the term used to describe the particular field of medicine in which a specialist doctor practices eg. gynaecology, ophthalmology and neurosurgery.
Waiting time is the amount of time (reported in days, weeks or months) that a patient has waited for admission to hospital. It is measured from the day the hospital received the "Request for Admission" form for the patient until the patient is admitted for surgery.
Contact us
If you're waiting for surgery at either The Canberra Hospital or Calvary Public Hospital and are concerned about your waiting time, call this number for information and advice:
