Elective surgery four-year plan ensuring Tasmanians receive health care sooner

Tasmanians are continuing to benefit from a $196 million plan to drive down the elective surgery waiting list, with the latest progress report showing Tasmanians are receiving their surgery sooner.

During 2022-23, Tasmanian public hospitals delivered record levels of activity, with 21,364 public elective surgery admissions and 13,294 endoscopies. This has exceeded annual performance targets and equates to more activity that has ever been delivered before, resulting in improved timeliness and access to care for Tasmanians.

The clinician-led, patient-focused Statewide Elective Surgery Four-Year Plan 2021-2025 has resulted in a 16 per cent reduction to the elective surgery waiting list during the previous financial year. There has also been a decrease in the median wait time for elective surgery decrease across patient categories 1, 2 and 3.

During 2022-23, 1050 more elective surgery admissions were delivered than the previous year, and the waiting list has decreased by 16 per cent in this 12-month period.

The waiting list at the end of June 2023 was 7,896 – the lowest since May 2018 – and a 35 per cent decrease from the level seen in January 2021.

We expect to see further improvement in the third year of our elective surgery plan, to ensure the waiting list continues to reduce and more Tasmanians receive their surgery sooner.

The progress report for year two of the Statewide Elective Surgery Four-Year Plan 2021-2025 is available here: Delivering our elective surgery plan | Tasmanian Department of Health