Elective surgery as defined in the Elective Surgery Waiting Times (removals and census) National Minimum Data Sets (NMDSs).

Waiting time is as defined in Waiting time at removal from elective surgery waiting list. Calculated by jurisdictions by subtracting the listing date for care from the removal date, minus any days the patient was waiting with a less urgent clinical urgency category than their clinical urgency category at removal, and excluding days where the patient was not ready for care.

Waiting times are calculated for patients whose reason for removal was:

1. Admitted as an elective patient for awaited procedure by or on behalf of this hospital or the state/territory
2. Admitted as emergency patient for awaited procedure by or on behalf of this hospital or the state/territory 

For the purposes of reporting, patients are reported as the final urgency category they were when treated. When a patient's urgency category changes, existing NMDS business rules will apply.

Analysis by state and territory based on location of service.

Presented as a percentage.

100 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

State and territory

NO DATA FOR 2015 REPORTING.

The scope of the indicator is all hospitals reporting to the National Elective Surgery Waiting Times Data Collection, which is patients removed from waiting lists for elective surgery which are managed by public acute hospitals.

Specification: Minor work required, the measure needs minor work to meet the intention of the indicator.

Urgency category and 'not ready for care' definitions are currently being reviewed for Standing Council on Health (SCoH) by the AIHW and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS).