Cataract surgery waiting time at Royal Adelaide 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 Adelaide area of South Australia, 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: 118 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 1017 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 8.8%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 68 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 176 days in 2011–12 to 118 days in 2024–25 — down 33% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Flinders Medical Centre, about 11 km away, at 48 days. Here, 8.8% 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
Royal Adelaide Hospital	118 days	8.8%	1017 surgeries
South Australia (all public hospitals)	84 days	9.0%	9054 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.

The Queen Elizabeth HospitalSA · about 6 km away383 days
Flinders Medical CentreSA · about 11 km away48 days
Modbury HospitalSA · about 13 km away61 days
Mount Barker District Soldiers' Memorial HospitalSA · about 31 km away211 days
Gawler Health ServiceSA · about 39 km away83 days
Angaston District HospitalSA · about 63 km away51 days
South Coast District HospitalSA · about 71 km away17 days
Clare HospitalSA · about 121 km away48 days

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

How the wait has changed

Royal Adelaide Hospital
SA
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	Royal Adelaide Hospital (days)	SA (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	176	78	89
2012–13	200	82	89
2013–14	243	78	79
2014–15	190	99	83
2015–16	201	119	93
2016–17	176	93	85
2017–18	317	97	87
2018–19	78	106	84
2019–20	90	107	98
2020–21	107	145	172
2021–22	151	120	158
2022–23	70	75	133
2023–24	128	76	119
2024–25	118	84	106

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

All surgery at Royal Adelaide Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in South Australia