Patients treated by urgency category (1,2,3)
When a patient in Victoria is assessed by a surgeon as requiring planned surgery, they are categorised as urgent (Category 1: treatment recommended within 30 days), semi-urgent (Category 2: treatment recommended within 90 days) or non-urgent (Category 3: treatment recommended within 12 months). They are then placed on a hospital-based wait list.
Tap the buttons below for specific data about planned surgery patients treated by urgency category. You can filter by hospital and urgency category.
Scroll further down for more information about the data (measures).
About the data:
The above measures look at:
- surgery within recommended time
- overdue surgery outside of recommended time.
About waiting time
Waiting time is the period between the date the patient was listed for the planned surgery procedure and the date they were admitted to hospital for surgery (excluding any days the patient was not ready for surgery).
The median waiting time is the time within which half of all planned surgery patients are admitted for surgery.
About surgery within and outside of recommended time
Patients who are not ready for planned surgery and those waiting for a non-surgical procedure are excluded.
A ready-for-surgery patient is classified as overdue for planned surgery if the total number of days they waited and were ready for surgery exceeded the recommended treatment time for their urgency category.
Notes
- Data source: Elective Surgery Information System (ESIS). Data extracted on 16 April 2026.
- Planned surgery data includes:
- Bass Coast Health which commenced planned surgery reporting from 2024–25.
- Colac Area Health, Kilmore District Hospital (campus of Northern Health) and Horsham and Stawell (both campuses under Grampians Health) which commenced reporting in 2025–26.
- Cranbourne Community Hospital (a campus of Monash Health) which commenced operations and reporting from 6 October 2025.
- Care needs to be taken when assessing results and comparing them to prior periods.
- Grampians Health planned admissions data prior to 1 January 2026 are not available at the campus level.
- Wodonga Hospital's campus-level planned surgery results include data from Albury Hospital.
- Results for the current financial year are preliminary and may change from quarter to quarter. Final results will be available in November. Results from the previous financial year have been finalised.
- * No results are available.