Information for doctors - Waiting times
Procedures
There is information on about 200 specific medical, surgical and dental procedures (eg. coronary artery bypass graft). Unclassified procedures are included as other surgical or other medical.
Hospitals
Note that specialists sometimes have visiting rights at more than one hospital and that all or a significant proportion of some doctors' practices are undertaken in the private sector.
Urgencies
Waiting times shorten significantly as the patient's condition is defined as more clinically urgent. As you may be aware, specialists allocate a clinical clinical priority code to each person who is waiting for admission to hospital. The code indicates the relative clinical priority for admission and the recommended timeframe for that admission.
Data not published
For some specialists for whom booked patients are recorded, waiting times data may not currently appear on this site. This is because of one of the following reasons:
- Doctor no longer practising at the hospital
This covers doctors who have resigned, retired or otherwise ceased to have admitting rights at the hospital. - Data is being rechecked
Hospitals make every effort to correct innaccuracies. If time does not permit correction before publication, the doctor's data is not published until corrections have been made. - Doctor does not have waiting list
In some circumstances, hospitals use the booking system to admit patients who are not actually waiting-list patients. This includes patients who may be admitted directly to a hospital as a matter of urgency, but are not strictly emergency patients. In these cases, the information is not published.
Qualifying information
- Doctor with pooled lists
For some specialties at some hospitals, patients may be added to a common (pooled) waiting list. The patient may be admitted under the care of any one of a number of specialists who admit patients from this pooled list. - Doctor may keep separate lists in rooms
Some doctors choose to keep lists of booked patients in their consulting rooms and only provide details to hospitals a short time before their admission. In this case, the hospital and NSW Health do not have information on the total waiting time for these patients. Consequently, waiting times displayed may appear shorter than those that the patients may experience. - Doctor recently appointed
A doctor who has been recently appointed to a hospital would normally have a relatively short waiting time. - Extended leave periods
If a doctor has been on leave for an extended period or is about to go on extended leave, his/her waiting time data over this period will not be representative of his/her normal waiting times. - Private Sector Practice
Many doctors treat patients in private hospitals, which may impact on their reported public hospital waiting times.