Routine first appointments
A specialist clinic is a unit within a hospital that provides planned, non-admitted services.
A routine first appointment is where a patient has been referred to a specialist clinic and the clinician determines the patient should be seen within 365 days from the date the referral was received.
Tap the buttons below for specific data about routine first appointments. You can filter by specialty clinic and health service.
Scroll further down for more information about the data (measures).
Jul-Sep 2024 specialist clinic data are unavailable due to late data submission by health services. Results will be updated next quarter.About the data:
The above specialty clinic measures look at:
- first appointments
- median waiting time
- 90th percentile waiting time
- percentage of patients seen within recommended time.
About first appointments
First appointment data is recorded when a first appointment is booked, even if the patient does not attend.
Once referred to a specialist clinic by a GP or other health provider, a patient can only have one first appointment. This is recorded at the specialist clinic they were referred to.
About waiting time
The number of days between the date a specialist clinic receives a routine patient referral, and the date that patient is first seen by the specialist clinic.
All waiting times are calculated from shortest to longest, and the time that sits in the middle is the median waiting time (or 50th percentile waiting time). The median waiting time is the time within which half of the patients attended their first appointment.
The 90th percentile waiting time is the time within which 90% of routine patients attended their first appointment.
About percentage of patients seen within recommended time
The proportion of routine patients who were seen by the specialist clinic within the recommended time of 365 days from receiving the referral.
The 2022-23 statewide target is for 90% of patients to wait less than 365 days for a routine appointment. The 2023–24 statewide targets have not been finalised.
Notes
- Data source: Victorian Integrated Non-Admitted Health Dataset (VINAH). Data extracted on 16 October 2024
- 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
- Results for Western Health exclude Bacchus Marsh and Melton campuses
- Care needs to be taken when assessing results and comparing them to prior periods
- * No results are available.