The Malinauskas Labor Government is delivering a record number of elective surgeries, with the most surgeries completed in the state's history.
In 2024-25, public hospitals delivered 61,915 elective surgery admissions, which was 5,332 more than the previous financial year — an increase of 9.4 per cent.
That growth has continued this financial year, with 52,957 elective surgery admissions delivered between 1 July 2025 and 30 April 2026. This is 2,071 more admissions than the same period last year, an increase of 4.1 per cent, and 6,669 more than the same period two years ago, an increase of 14.4 per cent.
This increase is despite the unexpected theatre closure at Noarlunga due to humidity issues. This theatre is now operational again as a result of investment to address the issue.
Importantly, the percentage of urgent category surgeries completed within timeframes is currently tracking to remain similar to last financial year, and semi-urgent is currently tracking up by 2.2 per cent.
This means thousands more patients are receiving planned surgery, especially those who need it most, even as hospitals continue to manage increasing emergency demand and pressure on beds.
Despite the record efforts, more South Australians have been added to the elective surgery waitlist. There are now 25,286 patients on elective surgery waiting lists – highlighting the continued increase in demand to the health system.
This has resulted in an increase in overdue patients, which is why we are throwing more resources at decreasing the number.
The Malinauskas Labor Government has introduced an Elective Surgery Reform Plan to further increase the number of elective surgeries and give people faster access. Some of the major changes underway to get through the increasing demand includes:
- Better scheduling, expanded same-day and extended-day surgery, streamlined referral pathways
- Increasing elective surgeries in regional areas, to deliver more options closer to home
- Making use of current capacity in the private hospital system to reduce wait times
- Decreasing surgical length of stay to increase the number of surgeries available through enhanced approaches to recovery and more hospital care in peoples home Ensuring through our Winter Plan we maximise the levels of safe elective surgeries possible.
As a result of these efforts, we are starting to see a reduction to the number of patients overdue for surgery.
As put by Blair Boyer
As the new Minister for Health, I want to see wait times reduce. That is why our government is funding more elective surgeries than ever before, and we're on track to increase that number again.
This is despite more pressure on our health system. Our investment in more than 700 beds since coming to government has helped create more capacity to do more surgeries, and there are more beds on the way through our investments in hospital infrastructure.
Last week's budget provides more funding for our public health system to meet increased demand, while also stepping in where the Commonwealth has failed, to create more aged care beds. If we can get the more than 400 aged care patients stuck in our hospitals and health facilities into aged care, we would have even more capacity to meet demand for elective surgery.
Building a bigger and better health system isn't something that is done overnight, but the Malinauskas Labor Government is making the long-term improvements we need to give South Australians access to timely and better care, closer to home.
