Cataract surgery waiting time at Port Macquarie Base 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 Port Macquarie 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: 82 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 175 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 4.6%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 42 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 210 days in 2011–12 to 82 days in 2024–25 — down 61% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Gloucester Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, about 107 km away, at 67 days. Here, 4.6% 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
Port Macquarie Base Hospital	82 days	4.6%	175 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.

Kempsey District HospitalNSW · about 43 km away208 days
Manning HospitalNSW · about 65 km away169 days
Macksville District HospitalNSW · about 82 km away366 days
Gloucester Soldiers' Memorial HospitalNSW · about 107 km away67 days
Armidale HospitalNSW · about 157 km away269 days
Tamworth HospitalNSW · about 190 km away331 days
Grafton Base HospitalNSW · about 198 km away354 days
Kurri Kurri HospitalNSW · about 203 km away327 days

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

How the wait has changed

Port Macquarie Base 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	Port Macquarie Base Hospital (days)	NSW (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	210	233	89
2012–13	292	238	89
2013–14	330	218	79
2014–15	343	221	83
2015–16	287	240	93
2016–17	230	224	85
2017–18	122	223	87
2018–19	118	245	84
2019–20	144	286	98
2020–21	287	290	172
2021–22	207	278	158
2022–23	201	282	133
2023–24	253	262	119
2024–25	82	268	106

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

All surgery at Port Macquarie Base Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in New South Wales