Cataract surgery waiting time at Royal Melbourne Hospital [City Campus]

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 Carlton area of Victoria, 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: 88 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 471 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 0.2%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 49 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 148 days in 2011–12 to 88 days in 2024–25 — down 41% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Royal Children's Hospital [Parkville], about 1 km away, at 27 days. Here, 0.2% 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 Melbourne Hospital [City Campus]	88 days	0.2%	471 surgeries
Victoria (all public hospitals)	68 days	4.7%	21008 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.

Royal Children's Hospital [Parkville]VIC · about 1 km away27 days
The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear HospitalVIC · about 2 km away48 days
The AlfredVIC · about 6 km away36 days
Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital [Heidelberg West]VIC · about 9 km away134 days
Sunshine HospitalVIC · about 13 km away211 days
Broadmeadows Health ServiceVIC · about 13 km away92 days
The Northern Hospital [Epping]VIC · about 17 km away88 days
Monash Medical Centre [Clayton]VIC · about 23 km away338 days

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

How the wait has changed

Royal Melbourne Hospital [City Campus]
VIC
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 Melbourne Hospital [City Campus] (days)	VIC (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	148	61	89
2012–13	229	52	89
2013–14	147	41	79
2014–15	91	35	83
2015–16	118	56	93
2016–17	150	41	85
2017–18	146	40	87
2018–19	71	36	84
2019–20	101	49	98
2020–21	46	79	172
2021–22	72	84	158
2022–23	68	77	133
2023–24	62	89	119
2024–25	88	68	106

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

All surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital [City Campus] · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in Victoria