Carpal tunnel surgery waiting times in Australian public hospitals

The national median wait for carpal tunnel surgery in Australian public hospitals was 71 days in 2024–25 — from 1 day at Deniliquin Hospital to 482 days at Sunshine Hospital. The source publishes this surgery as “Carpal tunnel release”.

Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released 28 May 2026

Across Australia, the median wait for carpal tunnel surgery in public hospitals was 71 days in 2024–25, from 9994 surgeries. 5.2% of people waited more than 365 days. 160 public hospitals published a median wait for it.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick “Carpal tunnel release” and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.

State by state

Bars show the median wait in days. The vertical line at 71 days marks the national median.

South Australia49 days
Victoria53 days
Tasmania63 days
Western Australia71 days
Queensland74 days
New South Wales96 days
Northern Territorynot published

Carpal tunnel release in public hospitals by state and territory, 2024–25. States with the same median share a rank. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Rank	State or territory	Median wait	Waited more than 365 days	Surgeries
1	South Australia	49 days	2.8%	808 surgeries
2	Victoria	53 days	3.5%	2456 surgeries
3	Tasmania	63 days	4.2%	381 surgeries
4	Western Australia	71 days	3.6%	1198 surgeries
5	Queensland	74 days	4.2%	2245 surgeries
6	New South Wales	96 days	8.9%	2847 surgeries
unranked	Northern Territory	not published	not published	59 surgeries

How the wait has changed

Australia
SA
VIC
TAS

View these numbers as a table

Median wait in days for Carpal tunnel release, by financial year. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Reference period	Australia (days)	SA (days)	VIC (days)	TAS (days)
2016–17	56	33	42	77
2017–18	61	38	45	83
2018–19	62	36	41	97
2019–20	70	45	52	84
2020–21	80	65	87	105
2021–22	82	69	85	112
2022–23	83	72	80	78
2023–24	72	57	54	63
2024–25	71	49	53	63

Common questions

How long is the wait for carpal tunnel surgery in a public hospital?

The national median was 71 days in 2024–25 — half of people waited less than that, half waited longer. State medians ranged from 49 days in South Australia to 96 days in New South Wales.

Which public hospital has the shortest wait for carpal tunnel surgery?

Of the 160 public hospitals that published a median for 2024–25, Deniliquin Hospital reported the shortest (1 day) and Sunshine Hospital the longest (482 days). A shorter median is not a recommendation — how to read these figures.

How many people waited more than a year?

5.2% of people who had carpal tunnel surgery in an Australian public hospital in 2024–25 waited more than 365 days.

What is not here

Public hospitals only. Private hospitals do not report to this collection, so their waiting times cannot be compared here.

The source calls this collection “elective surgery”. This site calls it planned surgery, because the surgery is planned in advance rather than optional — the methodology explains the wording.