Elective surgeries in Australian hospitals have fallen to the lowest number since 2010-11, due largely to COVID disruptions.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released information on public hospital elective surgery waiting times and emergency care in the 2021-22 financial year.
It found public hospitals performed 623,000 elective surgeries in the past 12 months, which is 131,600 (17 per cent) fewer than in 2020-21.
Dr Adrian Webster, AIHW spokesperson, says limits on elective surgeries to ensure capacity for COVID cases are the most obvious reason for the reduced numbers.
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“This followed periodic suspensions of lower-urgency elective surgery starting from March 2020, which have aimed to help ensure the health system maintains adequate capacity during the pandemic,” he says.
A surgery is deemed to be ‘elective’ if it is not an emergency, that is, it can be delayed by more than 24 hours without the patient dying. It doesn’t necessarily mean the elective surgery is somehow frivolous or not needed.
“An elective surgery is medically necessary, and may be urgent, but applies where the patient’s clinical condition does not require immediate care through an emergency admission,” Dr Webster says.
In the 2020-21 financial year, the first round of elective surgery restrictions was lifted across most states and territories, leading to a big jump in the number of procedures performed.
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But in 2021-22, the Omicron variant landed in Australia and outbreaks – and lockdowns – were back and elective surgeries were again restricted.
All jurisdictions in Australia saw a reduction in elective surgeries at this time, with the exception of Tasmania.
The largest decreases in procedures performed were in NSW (27 per cent fewer procedures) and WA (23 per cent fewer), while surgeries in Victoria were restricted for the majority of 2021-22, the longest time period of any region.
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In terms of how long people are waiting for elective surgery, the AIHW found around half those admitted for procedures from a public waiting list were admitted within 40 days – down from 48 days the previous year.
Just over six per cent of patients had to wait more than 365 days.
While the data relates to admissions from public hospital waiting lists, it should be noted that most elective surgeries are performed in private hospitals, where there is no national collection of wait time data.
The pandemic also had a big impact on emergency department presentations. As COVID cases dropped towards the end of 2021, the number of people arriving at emergency departments with a principal diagnosis of COVID went from a peak of 739 in August to 261 in November.
But cases then returned with a vengeance, with a peak of 1682 in January 2022, followed by a sharp fall to 545 in February. Cases increased again in April to 801 and then decreased to 469 in June.
Have you had an elective surgery scheduled in the past year? How long did you have to wait? Let us know in the comments section below.