Cataract surgery waiting time at The Queen Elizabeth 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 Woodville South 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: 383 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 603 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 53.6%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 132 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has risen from 88 days in 2011–12 to 383 days in 2024–25 — up 335% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Royal Adelaide Hospital, about 6 km away, at 118 days. Here, 53.6% 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
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital	383 days	53.6%	603 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.

Royal Adelaide HospitalSA · about 6 km away118 days
Modbury HospitalSA · about 15 km away61 days
Flinders Medical CentreSA · about 16 km away48 days
Mount Barker District Soldiers' Memorial HospitalSA · about 38 km away211 days
Gawler Health ServiceSA · about 38 km away83 days
Angaston District HospitalSA · about 64 km away51 days
South Coast District HospitalSA · about 76 km away17 days
Clare HospitalSA · about 117 km away48 days

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

How the wait has changed

The Queen Elizabeth 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	The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (days)	SA (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	88	78	89
2012–13	94	82	89
2013–14	68	78	79
2014–15	111	99	83
2015–16	105	119	93
2016–17	70	93	85
2017–18	126	97	87
2018–19	243	106	84
2019–20	194	107	98
2020–21	189	145	172
2021–22	86	120	158
2022–23	218	75	133
2023–24	149	76	119
2024–25	383	84	106

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

All surgery at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in South Australia