Cataract surgery waiting time at Lithgow 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 South Littleton area of New South Wales, 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: 231 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 300 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 0.0%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 102 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 275 days in 2011–12 to 231 days in 2024–25 — down 16% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Hawkesbury Hospital, about 65 km away, at 77 days. Here, 0.0% 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
Lithgow Hospital	231 days	0.0%	300 surgeries
New South Wales (all public hospitals)	268 days	22.0%	32695 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.

Blue Mountains HospitalNSW · about 29 km away281 days
Bathurst Base HospitalNSW · about 53 km away330 days
Hawkesbury HospitalNSW · about 65 km away77 days
Westmead HospitalNSW · about 87 km away351 days
The Children's Hospital at WestmeadNSW · about 87 km away44 days
Liverpool HospitalNSW · about 88 km away204 days
Campbelltown HospitalNSW · about 90 km away317 days
Auburn HospitalNSW · about 93 km away280 days

Distances are straight-line, measured between hospital locations, and are approximate. The search covered 250 km.

How the wait has changed

Lithgow Hospital
NSW
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	Lithgow Hospital (days)	NSW (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	275	233	89
2012–13	186	238	89
2013–14	164	218	79
2014–15	258	221	83
2015–16	289	240	93
2016–17	232	224	85
2017–18	259	223	87
2018–19	285	245	84
2019–20	313	286	98
2020–21	318	290	172
2021–22	335	278	158
2022–23	260	282	133
2023–24	260	262	119
2024–25	231	268	106

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

All surgery at Lithgow Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in New South Wales