Cataract surgery waiting time at Gove Hospital

Median wait, long waits and volumes for cataract surgery — published by the source as “Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion)” — at this public hospital in the Nhulunbuy area of Northern Territory, with the nearest alternatives that published a figure.

Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released 28 May 2026

Median wait: 226 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 56 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 25.0%2024–25 · released 28 May 2026

Half the people who had this surgery here waited less than the median, and half waited longer. Of the 132 public hospitals that published a median wait for this surgery in 2024–25, this one sits at 100 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has risen from 132 days in 2011–12 to 226 days in 2024–25 — up 71% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Katherine Hospital, about 548 km away, at 86 days. Here, 25.0% of people waited more than 365 days for this surgery; nationally it was 11.5%.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick “Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion)” and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.

How this compares

Median wait, long waits and volume for Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion), 2024–25.
Where	Median wait	Waited more than 365 days	Surgeries
Gove Hospital	226 days	25.0%	56 surgeries
Northern Territory (all public hospitals)	162 days	20.4%	921 surgeries
Queensland (all public hospitals)	82 days	1.9%	8868 surgeries
Western Australia (all public hospitals)	82 days	5.1%	12672 surgeries
Australia (all public hospitals)	106 days	11.5%	87841 surgeries

Where the wait is shorter nearby

Bars show the median wait in days. The vertical line at 106 days marks the national median.

Katherine HospitalNT · about 548 km away86 days
Weipa HospitalQLD · about 556 km away5 days
Thursday Island HospitalQLD · about 618 km away4 days
Palmerston Regional HospitalNT · about 628 km away161 days
Royal Darwin HospitalNT · about 641 km away155 days
Kununurra HospitalWA · about 955 km away258 days
Mount Isa Base HospitalQLD · about 993 km away193 days

Distances are straight-line, measured between hospital locations, and are approximate. The search covered 1000 km — the radius was widened because fewer than four hospitals published a figure within 250 km.

Some of these hospitals are in another state — a public hospital referral can cross the border, so ask your GP what that would mean for you.

How the wait has changed

Gove Hospital
NT
Australia

View these numbers as a table

Median wait in days for Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion), by financial year. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Reference period	Gove Hospital (days)	NT (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	132	168	89
2012–13	173	156	89
2013–14	145	116	79
2014–15	169	143	83
2015–16	150	158	93
2016–17	163	117	85
2017–18	300	71	87
2018–19	118	82	84
2019–20	145	96	98
2020–21	43	118	172
2021–22	202	200	158
2022–23	not reported for this period	306	133
2023–24	203	217	119
2024–25	226	162	106

Public hospitals only — what these figures include and leave out.

All surgery at Gove Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in Northern Territory