Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads
Hip replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment was 158 days in 2025, up 2.6% on a year earlier.
Updated
Source: OECD. Last retrieved 10 October 2026.
Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ, days, 2003 to 2025
Hip replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatmentKnee replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatmentCataract surgery: median days from specialist assessment to treatment
Show the figures
| Period | Hip replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment (days) | Knee replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment (days) | Cataract surgery: median days from specialist assessment to treatment (days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 158 days | 213 days | 120 days |
| 2024 | 154 days | 218 days | 104 days |
| 2023 | 163 days | 223 days | 101 days |
| 2022 | 155 days | 193 days | 91 days |
| 2021 | 112 days | 127 days | 95 days |
| 2020 | 106 days | 120 days | 75 days |
| 2019 | 99 days | 106 days | 70 days |
| 2018 | 81 days | 89 days | 81 days |
| 2017 | 73 days | 75 days | 76 days |
| 2016 | 76 days | 79 days | 75 days |
| 2015 | 76 days | 78 days | 74 days |
| 2014 | 85 days | 95 days | 74 days |
| 2013 | 98 days | 112 days | 75 days |
| 2012 | 99 days | 110 days | 88 days |
| 2011 | 90 days | 97 days | 84 days |
| 2010 | 91 days | 99 days | 104 days |
| 2009 | 82 days | 84 days | 92 days |
| 2008 | 78 days | 79 days | 83 days |
| 2007 | 77 days | 77 days | 65 days |
| 2006 | 63 days | 65 days | 62 days |
2025Hip replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment 158 daysKnee replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment 213 daysCataract surgery: median days from specialist assessment to treatment 120 days
Lines break at accounting-basis changes and missing periods. Source: OECD.
Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads: definitions
How long New Zealanders wait for common planned operations, hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery, from specialist assessment to treatment, as reported to the OECD: the median wait in days and the share waiting more than three months. Annual from 2003.
Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads: comparison limits
These affect how the figures can be compared.
- Measures waiting after a specialist has decided to treat; it does not include the wait to see a specialist in the first place.
- Annual figures; Health NZ's quarterly health-target reporting (to be added) gives more recent detail.
Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads: data by period
The latest ten periods for up to the first six series. Downloads contain every published observation.
| Period | Hip replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment | Hip replacement: % waiting more than 3 months | Knee replacement: median days from specialist assessment to treatment | Knee replacement: % waiting more than 3 months | Cataract surgery: median days from specialist assessment to treatment | Cataract surgery: % waiting more than 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 158 days | 72.7% | 213 days | 84.8% | 120 days | 65.2% |
| 2024 | 154 days | 70.5% | 218 days | 81.3% | 104 days | 55.4% |
| 2023 | 163 days | 73.3% | 223 days | 82.1% | 101 days | 54.3% |
| 2022 | 155 days | 72.3% | 193 days | 78.1% | 91 days | 49.6% |
| 2021 | 112 days | 62.2% | 127 days | 69.4% | 95 days | 52.1% |
| 2020 | 106 days | 58.3% | 120 days | 64.2% | 75 days | 39.1% |
| 2019 | 99 days | 55.1% | 106 days | 60.8% | 70 days | 34.0% |
| 2018 | 81 days | 42.5% | 89 days | 47.6% | 81 days | 40.7% |
| 2017 | 73 days | 34.8% | 75 days | 36.5% | 76 days | 36.6% |
| 2016 | 76 days | 39.5% | 79 days | 41.0% | 75 days | 37.0% |
Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads: questions for your AI
Download the file, attach it in the assistant you use, then paste the prompt. Whatever it tells you is its reading of the data, not ours.
- 1Download elective-surgery-waiting-times.csv
- 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
- 3Paste this prompt
The attached CSV is Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ (elective-surgery-waiting-times), from OECD, Waiting times for elective surgery. Describe how each measure has changed, naming its unit and period. Treat changes in basis and missing periods as breaks. Distinguish observation from explanation. Limitations: Measures waiting after a specialist has decided to treat; it does not include the wait to see a specialist in the first place. Annual figures; Health NZ's quarterly health-target reporting (to be added) gives more recent detail.. Do not infer causation from changes during government terms.
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Waiting times for elective surgery in NZ: data and downloads: sources
The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.
- Organisation
- OECD, Waiting times for elective surgery
- Licence
- OECD Terms and Conditions (Data), reuse including commercial with citation. OECD (2026), Waiting times for elective surgery, OECD Data Explorer, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/ (accessed on 10 October 2026). Figures selected and transformed by NZ in Numbers. Anyone reusing these figures must keep this OECD citation.
- Reuse limits
- Some OECD datasets include third-party material with its own terms; check the OECD terms page before monetising.
- Snapshot
- data/raw/oecd-waiting-times/2026-10-10_b9d3c31d1c4e.csv
- SHA256
- b9d3c31d1c4edb45de3717b11048320eaed107fe0cefc626dc1d49d9c9ca4d51
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026