Cataract surgery waiting time at The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear 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 East Melbourne 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: 48 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 5067 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 5.2%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 23 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 57 days in 2011–12 to 48 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 Royal Children's Hospital [Parkville], about 3 km away, at 27 days. Here, 5.2% 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
The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital	48 days	5.2%	5067 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 Melbourne Hospital [City Campus]VIC · about 2 km away88 days
Royal Children's Hospital [Parkville]VIC · about 3 km away27 days
The AlfredVIC · about 4 km away36 days
Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital [Heidelberg West]VIC · about 9 km away134 days
Broadmeadows Health ServiceVIC · about 15 km away92 days
Sunshine HospitalVIC · about 15 km away211 days
The Northern Hospital [Epping]VIC · about 18 km away88 days
Monash Medical Centre [Clayton]VIC · about 21 km away338 days

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

How the wait has changed

The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital
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	The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital (days)	VIC (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	57	61	89
2012–13	37	52	89
2013–14	33	41	79
2014–15	25	35	83
2015–16	58	56	93
2016–17	29	41	85
2017–18	27	40	87
2018–19	28	36	84
2019–20	32	49	98
2020–21	62	79	172
2021–22	79	84	158
2022–23	64	77	133
2023–24	87	89	119
2024–25	48	68	106

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

All surgery at The Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in Victoria