Figure 10 - Trends in waiting times and rates of admission to elective surgery waiting lists.
The sources are Australian Hospital Statistics reports on elective surgery waiting list activity and waiting times for 2006, 2007 and 2010. The X-axis represents year, from 2000-01 to 2009-10. The Y-axis is named Relative index - 2000-01 is 100.
Five lines are shown: number of admissions; admissions per 1,000; median waiting times; 90th percentile waiting times; and percentage of patients waiting greater than 365 days. On each line, “Elective Surgery Waiting List Plan agreed” is marked at January 2008 and “Surcharge changes” at October 2008.
The number of admissions from the list has increased steadily over the 10-year period from 100 in 2000-01 to just under 120 in 2009-10. The rate of admission per 1,000 population has changed very little with a slight increase from 2007-08 to 2008-09 to approximately 105.
Median waiting times; 90th percentile waiting times; and percentage of patients waiting greater than 365 days all fluctuate. The trend for median waiting times decreases in 2001-02, then increases each year to 2005-06 to approximately 120; then flattens to 2006-07. It increases again to 2007-08, then flattens to 2008-09. It then increases, ending at approximately 130 in 2009-10. The trend for 90th percentile waiting times decreases to 2003-04, then increases to 2005-06 to approximately 120. It then fluctuates to 2009-10, ending at approximately 122. The trend for percentage of patients waiting greater than 365 days decreases to 2003-04, then increases to 2004-05 to approximately 105. It then remains stable to 2005-06 before a steady decrease to 2008-09 to approximately 65. It then increases to 2009-10, ending at approximately 80.