Planned Surgery in Victoria
Audit snapshot
Did the COVID Catch-up Plan for planned surgery deliver its intended outcomes?
Why we did this audit
During the COVID-19 pandemic many planned surgeries were deferred to increase the health system's capacity to respond to the health emergency. This led to growing waiting lists. In April 2022 the government allocated $1.5 billion to the COVID Catch-up Plan (the plan). The plan aimed to improve the health system’s capacity to deliver planned surgeries and address the backlog from the pandemic. The Department of Health (the department) delivered the plan.
We did this audit to see if the plan delivered its intended outcomes.
Key background information
Source: VAGO, based on the plan.
What we concluded
The plan increased the number of planned surgeries and reduced the backlog caused by the pandemic.
In 2023–24 the department delivered 209,925 planned surgeries, compared with the target of 240,000. Around two thirds of this shortfall was mainly because fewer public surgeries were delivered in private hospitals than expected.
The department:
- reduced the waiting list by 30,958 patients (35 per cent), from 88,434 in March 2022 to 57,476 by June 2024. This was 4 per cent short of the target of 55,400
- aimed to treat 95 per cent of patients within clinically recommended timeframes. It did not meet this target but it improved from 72 per cent in March 2022 to 83 per cent by June 2024
- did not meet the target to treat all patients who had been on the waiting list for longer than the recommended timeframe by March 2023. However, 96 per cent of these patients were treated by June 2024.
The plan came in $356.4 million under budget. This was mainly because fewer private hospitals partnered with public health services to deliver surgeries than the department planned and budgeted for. The department reallocated just under half of this funding to help health services recover after the pandemic.
The plan is finished and was primarily designed to target the backlog from the pandemic and improve planned surgery performance. However, rapid access hubs and planned surgical centres established under the plan will continue to operate.
Video presentation
1. Our key findings
What we examined
Our audit followed 2 lines of inquiry:
1. Did the Department of Health (the department) deliver all elements of the COVID Catch-up Plan (the plan)?
2. Were the plan's outcomes achieved?
To answer these questions, we examined the department and the following health services:
- Alfred Health, which runs Sandringham Hospital rapid access hub
- Northern Health, which runs Northern Hospital Epping rapid access hub
- Peninsula Health, which runs Frankston Public Surgical Centre
- St Vincent's Hospital, which runs St Vincent’s Hospital on the Park rapid access hub.
Terms used in this report
Planned surgeries are surgeries that are booked in advance. They can be delayed for at least 24 hours. In contrast, emergency surgeries are unplanned and cannot be delayed.
Procedures include surgical and non-surgical activities. While surgeries usually involve an incision, non-surgical procedures are generally less invasive. Some of the plan’s rapid access hubs deliver non-surgical procedures such as endoscopies.
Clinically recommended timeframes are the waiting times that the National Elective Surgery Urgency Categorisation recommends for planned surgeries. Waiting times are based on the following urgency categories:
- Category 1 surgeries are considered urgent and should be done within 30 days. These surgeries include procedures such as mastectomies, neonatal surgery, limb amputations and biopsies.
- Category 2 surgeries are considered semi-urgent and should be done within 90 days. These include procedures such as heart valve replacements and nerve decompression surgery.
- Category 3 surgeries should be delivered within one year. These surgeries include procedures such as tonsillectomy, non emergency hip replacements and non-cosmetic rhinoplasties.
Non-surgical treatment pathways are evidence-based treatments that divert or delay the need for surgery, or interventions to improve patients' health before, during and after surgery.
March 2022 long waiter cohort refers to a group of patients who were on the planned surgery waiting list for longer than the clinically recommended timeframe as at March 2022.
COVID Catch-up Plan
During the COVID-19 pandemic the department paused non-urgent surgeries. This led to Victorians waiting longer for care.
The number of patients on the planned surgery waiting list increased by 73 per cent from approximately 51,000 in January 2020 to 88,434 by March 2022.
The proportion of patients treated within clinically recommended timeframes decreased from over 90 per cent in June 2019 to 72 per cent by March 2022.
To reduce the backlog and waiting times the government allocated $1.5 billion to the plan. The plan also aimed to increase the public health system's ongoing capacity to deliver planned surgery.
The plan was launched on 3 April 2022 and ran to 30 June 2024.
The plan's initiatives
As Figure 1 shows, the plan had 15 initiatives under 5 components.
Figure 1: The plan’s initiatives
| Component | Initiatives |
|---|---|
Maximise public activity and throughput
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Maximise private capacity
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Rapid patient prioritisation and assessment
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Workforce expansion
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Delivery pillars
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Note: *ESIS stands for Elective Surgery Information System.
Source: VAGO, based on the plan's business case.
Public-in-private surgery
A public-in-private surgery is when public surgeries take place in private facilities under an agreed contract between the services.
Throughput
For planned surgery, throughput refers to the number of patients who were admitted as planned for surgery from the waiting list.
The plan’s overarching target
The plan’s overarching target was to deliver 240,000 planned surgeries per year by June 2024. This is 40,000 more than the public health system delivered in 2018–19 before the pandemic.
The plan intended for this target to be ongoing each financial year. However, the government reduced it to 210,000 for the 2024–25 financial year to align with 2023–24 activity levels.
The plan's targets
The plan had the following targets:
- 51,200 more public admissions at private hospitals per year by 30 June 2024
- treat all March 2022 long waiter cohort patients by 31 March 2023
- treat 95 per cent of patients within clinically recommended timeframes by 30 June 2024
- reduce the waiting list to 55,400 patients by 30 June 2024.
Some initiatives also had their own targets, including around 15,000 expected procedures for 2 new public surgical centres in Frankston and Blackburn.
What we found
This section focuses on our key findings, which fall into 3 areas:
1. The department increased the number of planned surgeries and reduced the waiting list, but did not fully meet the plan's targets.
2. The shortfall against the overarching target was mainly from the public-in-private initiative.
3. The plan delivered additional facilities for planned surgeries, but their current and future impact on the health system's performance is unclear.
The full list of our recommendations, including agency responses, is at the end of this section.
Consultation with agencies
When reaching our conclusions, we consulted with the audited agencies and considered their views.
You can read their full responses in Appendix A.
Key finding 1: The department increased the number of planned surgeries and reduced the waiting list, but did not fully meet the plan’s targets
Overarching target
In 2023–24 the department delivered 209,925 planned surgeries, compared with the plan's target of 240,000.
The 2023–24 result is 5 per cent higher than the 198,996 surgeries delivered in 2018–19. But it falls 13 per cent short of the plan's target.
Waiting list target
At the beginning of the plan in March 2022, there were 88,434 patients on the waiting list for planned surgery. The plan aimed to reduce the number of patients on the waiting list to 55,400 by June 2024.
The department was close to meeting this target. The number of patients on the waiting list decreased to 57,476 by June 2024, which is a reduction of 30,958 patients.
Treatment timeframes target
The plan aimed to increase the proportion of patients treated within the clinically recommended timeframes to 95 per cent.
While the department did not meet this target, it did increase the proportion treated from 72 per cent in March 2022 to 83 per cent in June 2024.
March 2022 long waiter cohort target
The March 2022 long waiter cohort included 42,478 patients who had been on the waiting list for longer than the clinically recommended timeframe as at March 2022.
The plan aimed to treat all the patients in this cohort by March 2023. Health services treated 75 per cent of these patients by 31 March 2023. By June 2024 there were still 1,699 on the waiting list.
The department told us that as at May 2025 there were 583 March 2022 long waiter cohort patients waiting for surgery.
Target for Frankston Public Surgical Centre
The plan had an initiative to convert Frankston Private Hospital into a public surgical centre. Peninsula Health runs the centre, which was fully operational from July 2023.
The plan aimed for the centre to deliver 9,000 procedures per year in 2023–24.
The centre did not meet this target, but it did improve Peninsula Health's overall performance. The centre delivered 6,053 planned surgeries in 2023–24, compared with 2,809 in 2022–23.
The shortfall against the target was mainly because the centre was not fully operational until July 2023, which was about 4 months behind schedule. The department told us this was due to capital works delays, COVID-19 and industrial action.
Peninsula Health also told us the modelling the department used to set the target did not adequately consider:
- workforce factors
- some patients having more than one procedure per session
- patients cancelling surgeries at short notice or not being fit to have the surgery on the day
- the requirement to re-screen existing waitlisted patients, which took extra time, to confirm suitability for their procedure at the public surgical centre.
The department told us that Peninsula Health was closely consulted in establishing the Frankston Public Surgical Centre, including the procedural capacity of the site.
Target for Blackburn Public Surgical Centre
The plan had an initiative to convert Bellbird Private Hospital in Blackburn to a public surgical centre. Eastern Health runs the centre.
The plan aimed for the centre to deliver 5,760 surgeries per year until June 2024. But it delivered 1,519 surgeries, comprising 877 surgeries in 2022–23 and 642 surgeries in 2023–24.
The centre opened in October 2022 with 2 theatres. But it closed:
- between January and February 2023 due to flood damage
- from October 2023 to June 2024 to add 2 more theatres and refurbish its facilities.
It reopened with 4 theatres in January 2025. This was 7 months after the plan ended.
While the plan initially intended for the centre to be short term, it is now a permanent site that Eastern Health acquired and uses for general surgeries and gynaecology procedures.
Elective Surgery Information System monitoring information
The department collects performance data about planned surgeries through the Elective Surgery Information System (ESIS). ESIS contains data about planned surgeries and waiting lists from Victorian health services.
There are some health services that do a small number of planned surgeries each year that do not report into ESIS. As these health services received minimal funding under the plan, we do not consider this impacts the reliability of the department's reporting against the plan's targets.
While ESIS adequately captures planned surgery activity funded under the plan, there is no single complete data source for all Victorian planned surgery activities.
Addressing this finding
To address this finding we made 2 recommendations to the department about:
- working with relevant health services to make sure all public planned surgeries in Victoria are captured in ESIS
- actively monitoring the status of the March 2022 long waiter cohort patients and working with health services to ensure patients ready for surgery are treated as soon as practicable.
See Section 2 for the complete list of our recommendations, including agency responses.
Key finding 2: The shortfall against the overarching target was mainly from the public-in-private initiative
Public health services often contract private hospitals to deliver public surgeries. Public-in-private surgeries increase the public health system’s capacity to deliver timely and high-quality procedures.
The plan had an initiative to increase the number of partnerships between public and private hospitals. Its target was to increase public admissions in private hospitals by 51,200 admissions by June 2024.
From April 2022 to June 2024, 20 public health services entered into public-in-private contracts with private providers. This was fewer contracts than the department expected. The department told us the shortfall in contracts was mainly because private hospitals:
- faced similar system pressures to the public health system and prioritised their own backlogs from the pandemic
- quoted costs that were too high
- only requested low-complexity patients.
As a result, these contracts only led to 31,209 additional public-in-private surgery admissions.
The shortfall of around 20,000 admissions was about two-thirds of the shortfall against the plan's overarching target.
The department only paid private providers after they delivered the procedures they agreed to in their contracts. The shortfall in admissions meant the department did not spend as much on this initiative as it planned. It reallocated this funding to public health services and a new initiative, which we discuss in Section 4.
Key finding 3: The plan delivered additional facilities for planned surgeries, but their current and future impact on the health system's performance is unclear
The plan delivered 12 rapid access hubs and the Frankston and Blackburn public surgical centres. But their impact on the system's performance is unclear.
The department estimated these facilities could deliver just under 28,000 planned surgeries each year. The department engaged with health services, including through performance monitoring meetings. But:
- it could not directly report on the hubs' performance
- the surgical centres did not achieve their targets under the plan.
How these facilities contribute to the health system's performance in the future depends on factors such as funding, how and when they are used, and the system's future needs.
2. Our recommendations
We made 2 recommendations to address our findings. The Department of Health has accepted the recommendations in full or in principle.
| Recommendation | Agency response | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finding: The Department of Health increased the number of planned surgeries and reduced the waiting list, but did not fully meet the plan's targets | ||||
| Department of Health | 1 | Work with relevant health services to make sure all public planned surgeries delivered in Victoria are captured in the Elective Surgery Information System (see Section 3). | Accepted in principle | |
| 2 | Actively monitor the status of the March 2022 long waiter cohort patients and work with health services to ensure patients ready for surgery are treated as soon as practicable (see Section 3). | Accepted | ||
3. Performance against the plan's targets
The plan reduced the waiting list and backlog from the pandemic, but the department did not fully meet its key targets.
Health services delivered 209,925 planned surgeries in 2023–24. This is an increase of 5 per cent from before the pandemic in 2018–19. But it is around 30,000 fewer than the plan's target of 240,000.
Under the plan the number of patients on the waiting list decreased by 35 per cent from 88,434 in March 2022 to 57,476 in June 2024. The department was close to reaching its target of 55,400 patients remaining on the list in June 2024.
The department increased the proportion of patients treated within recommended timeframes from 72 per cent in March 2022 to 83 per cent in June 2024. But this was less than the plan's target of 95 per cent.
The department did not treat all the March 2022 long waiter cohort by March 2023. At 31 March 2023, 25 per cent of these patients were still waiting for treatment.
The department did not meet its planned surgery targets for the 2 new public surgical centres by June 2024. But these centres are now fully operational.
Covered in this section:
- ESIS adequately captures planned surgery activity funded under the plan, but does not capture activity among health services that complete low levels of planned surgeries
- The department reached 87 per cent of its overarching target for planned surgeries in 2023–24
- The department reduced the number of patients on the waiting list but fell just short of the plan's target
- More patients are being treated within clinically recommended timeframes
- The number of March 2022 long waiter cohort patients decreased
- The plan's 2 public surgical centres did not meet their targets but are now fully operational
ESIS adequately captures planned surgery activity funded under the plan, but does not capture activity among health services that complete low levels of planned surgeries
ESIS monitoring information
Twenty-three health services in Victoria use ESIS, including all major metropolitan health services.
A further 34 public health services deliver planned surgeries but do not use ESIS.
These 34 health services do a small number of planned surgeries each year and got minimal funding under the plan. We consider any impact of ESIS not capturing these surgeries to be negligible on the department’s results against the plan’s targets.
But more broadly, there is no complete, single information source for all Victorian planned surgery activities.
The department reached 87 per cent of its overarching target for planned surgeries in 2023–24
Overarching target
The plan's overarching target was to deliver 240,000 planned surgeries per year by June 2024. This target was based on the following sub-targets:
- 51,200 public-in-private surgeries during the plan
- 17,000 planned surgeries per month at public health services.
In 2023–24, the department delivered 209,925 planned surgeries. While this fell short of the plan's overarching target, it is an increase of 5 per cent compared with 198,996 surgeries in 2018–19 before the pandemic.
Private-in-public surgeries
Private hospitals delivered 31,209 private-in-public surgeries during the plan, compared to the target of 51,200.
This shortfall was the main reason the department did not meet the plan's overarching target.
We discuss the reasons why the department did not meet this sub-target in Section 4.
Surgeries in public health services
Under the plan, the department aimed to deliver 17,000 public planned surgeries per month.
As Figure 2 shows, the number of surgeries increased from 14,032 per month in November 2022 to 16,078 in June 2024.
Figure 2: Public planned surgeries per month from November 2022 to June 2024
Source: VAGO, based on data from the department.
The department reduced the number of patients on the waiting list but fell just short of the plan's target
Waiting list target
The waiting list for planned surgeries increased from 51,000 in January 2020 to 88,434 in March 2022 while the department and health services redistributed resources to respond to the pandemic.
Under the plan, the department aimed to reduce the waiting list to 55,400.
Result against the target
As Figure 3 shows, the planned surgery waiting list decreased to 57,476 patients by June 2024.
While this was 4 per cent below the plan's target, the number of patients on the list substantially decreased from March 2023.
Figure 3: Number of patients on the planned surgery waiting list from June 2022 to June 2024
Source: VAGO, based on data from the department.
More patients are being treated within clinically recommended timeframes
Clinically recommended timeframes and target
The department follows clinically recommended waiting times for planned surgeries. It bases these timeframes on how urgent the surgery is. The waiting times for planned surgery are:
- within 30 days for urgent surgery (category 1)
- within 90 days for semi-urgent surgery (category 2)
- within 365 days for non-urgent surgery (category 3).
Patients who do not receive surgery within the recommended timeframe may experience worsening health and less successful surgical outcomes.
The proportion of patients treated within clinically recommended timeframes was 72 per cent in March 2022.
Under the plan, the department aimed to treat 95 per cent of patients within clinically recommended timeframes across all categories by June 2024.
Result against the target
The department increased the proportion of patients treated within clinically recommended timeframes, but it did not reach the target.
As Figure 4 shows, the proportion of patients treated within clinically recommended timeframes increased to 83 per cent by June 2024. But the department fell short of its June 2024 target by 12 per cent.
Figure 4: Proportion of patients treated within clinically recommended timeframes from November 2022 to June 2024
Note: The department did not set a target for June 2022. Targets were set for November 2022, March 2023 and June 2024.
Source: VAGO, based on data from the department.
The number of March 2022 long waiter cohort patients decreased
March 2022 long waiter cohort
Due to the pause in planned surgeries during the pandemic, there were 42,478 patients who had been on the waiting list for longer than the recommended timeframe as at March 2022.
The department refers to these patients as the March 2022 long waiter cohort.
The plan had a target to get all these patients off the waiting list by March 2023.
Result against the target
The plan had the following targets for the March 2022 long waiter cohort patients:
- treat 12,000 patients by June 2022
- treat 31,500 patients by November 2022
- treat all remaining patients by March 2023.
The department treated 14,091 patients by June 2022, which exceeded the target. However, at March 2023 there were still 10,672 patients on the waiting list.
In June 2024 there were 1,699 patients on the waiting list. This means the department still had not met its target over 15 months after the scheduled completion date. The department told us at May 2025 there were 583 March 2022 long waiter cohort patients waiting for surgery.
The plan’s 2 public surgical centres did not meet their targets but are now fully operational
Target for Frankston Public Surgical Centre
Under the plan, Frankston Private Hospital was converted into a public surgical centre. Peninsula Health runs the centre.
The plan had a target for the centre to deliver 9,000 procedures per year when it was fully operational in 2023–24. But Peninsula Health told us it only delivered 6,053 procedures in 2023–24.
Peninsula Health told us that delays in building 2 additional operating theatres at the centre was the main reason it did not meet the target. Other reasons for the delays include the impact of COVID-19 and industrial action. The theatres were fully operational in July 2023, rather than February 2023 as intended.
Issues with Frankston's target
Peninsula Health told us the modelling the department used to set the plan's target did not adequately consider:
- workforce factors
- some patients having more than one procedure per session
- patients cancelling surgeries at short notice or not being fit to have the surgery on the day
- the requirement to re-screen existing waitlisted patients, which took extra time, to confirm suitability for their procedure at the public surgical centre.
Peninsula Health also told us that having the public surgical centre had an unintended adverse impact on its main facility Frankston Hospital's ability to achieve its set targets. Frankston Hospital is the biggest public hospital that Peninsula Health runs.
Peninsula Health moved high volumes of low-complexity surgeries from Frankston Hospital to the public surgical centre. As a result, the hospital now does more complex surgeries, which uses more resources.
The department told us both sites operate to their clinical capability level. It said Frankston Hospital is more suitable for complex surgeries and the public surgical centre for less complex surgeries.
The department told us that Peninsula Health was closely consulted in establishing the Frankston Public Surgical Centre, including the procedural capacity of the site.
Target for Blackburn Public Surgical Centre
Under the plan, the department converted Bellbird Private Hospital into a public surgical centre. Eastern Health runs the centre, which first opened in October 2022.
The plan had a target for the centre to deliver 5,760 procedures per year until June 2024. However, the centre closed in January and February 2023 due to flood damage.
Between February 2023 and October 2023, it was open with 2 theatres in operation. It closed again between October 2023 and June 2024 to construct 2 additional theatres. It reopened with 2 theatres in June 2024.
While the centre was closed Eastern Health relocated procedures to its other facilities. Due to the closure, Eastern Health did not finish setting up the centre's 2 additional operating theatres until January 2025. This was 7 months after the plan finished.
As a result, the centre only delivered:
- 877 planned surgeries in 2022–23
- 642 planned surgeries in 2023–24.
The plan intended for the centre to be a short-term initiative. It was only meant to operate from October 2022 to June 2024. But it is now a permanent site, which Eastern Health uses for general surgeries and gynaecology procedures.
4. Public surgeries in private hospitals and additional facilities for planned surgeries
The plan had an initiative to increase the number of public surgery admissions in private hospitals. Nearly half of the plan's budget was allocated to this initiative.
However, fewer private hospitals entered into contracts with public health services than the department expected. The initiative fell short of its target by 19,991 admissions. This represents around two-thirds of the shortfall against the plan's overarching target of 240,000 surgeries in 2023–24.
The department reallocated most of the unspent funding from this initiative to other initiatives and to help health services meet cost pressures from the pandemic. There was $185.95 million of leftover funding, which the department did not distribute to health services.
The plan's 12 hubs and 2 public surgical centres are expected to deliver around 28,000 procedures each year. But their impact on the health system's performance is unclear.
Covered in this section:
- The plan’s public-in-private initiative did not meet its target
- The department reallocated part of its budget from the public-in-private initiative
- The current and future impact of the plan’s hubs and surgical centres on the health system’s performance is unclear
The plan’s public-in-private initiative did not meet its target
Public-in-private surgery initiative
Public health services regularly contract the private sector to deliver public surgeries using private resources and facilities.
Public-in-private surgeries can increase the public health system’s capacity to deliver timely and high quality surgical care.
Under the plan, the department aimed to increase the number of public-in-private contracts between public health services and private hospitals. It expected these contracts would lead to an additional 51,200 patient admissions over the course of the plan.
Contracts and admissions
From April 2022 to June 2024, 20 public and private hospitals entered into public-in-private contracts.
Over the course of the plan these contracts led to 31,209 admissions, which was 61 per cent of the plan’s June 2024 sub-target of 51,200.
The department told us the shortfall in contracts was because private providers:
- faced similar system pressures to public health services and prioritised their own backlogs from the pandemic
- quoted costs that were too high
- requested only low-complexity patients.
The department also told us that many private hospitals did not deliver the number of procedures agreed to in their contracts.
Strategies to address underperformance
The department explored 2 strategies to address underperforming public-in-private contracts. The strategies considered:
- paying for public surgeons and anaesthetists to deliver public surgeries in private hospitals' operating theatres, while the private hospital managed post-surgery care
- setting up central hubs to allocate patients to large private providers.
The department told us it trialled the first strategy. However, it did not increase public in-private admissions as intended. The department did not proceed with the central hubs strategy.
The department reallocated part of its budget from the public-in-private initiative
Budget revisions and leftover funding
Figure 5 shows the department's budget, spending and underspending for the plan's public in private initiative.
Figure 5: Public-in-private initiative budget
| Initial budget | Budget revised in 2021–22 | Funding reallocated to other initiatives | Actual spend in June 2024 on public-in-private surgeries |
|---|---|---|---|
| $718.0 million | $473.9 million | $244.1 million | $152.0 million |
Note: The department allocated $3.7 million for a new initiative that was not part of the plan's original business case to support high-intensity throughput activity.
Source: VAGO, based on data from the department.
Overall, the plan was under budget. The department:
- spent $356.4 million less than it budgeted on the plan (in addition to minor overspending and underspending on other initiatives)
- reallocated $155.5 million to help health services meet cost pressures from the pandemic.
This resulted in $185.95 million of leftover funding that the department did not distribute to health services.
Initiative to support high intensity throughput
The department has used part of the unspent funding on a new initiative to support high-intensity throughput activity. This initiative aims to:
- make the health system more efficient by improving surgical throughput
- fund projects to make operating theatres more efficient
- deliver high-intensity theatre lists, which maximise the number of procedures a health service delivers by grouping together similar types of surgeries or patients.
This initiative has already led to some health services developing high-intensity theatres lists and incorporating them as part of their standard practice.
For example, Austin Health reduced its orthopaedic waiting list by 10 per cent during its ‘Bone and Joint Week’ in January 2023. The hospital ran a second week in 2024 and third in 2025 with similar results.
Some health services have adopted similar approaches for other activities, such as dedicating resources to paediatric procedures during school holidays.
From June 2023 to June 2024 the high-intensity throughput initiative supported 5,894 procedures, including 560 high intensity throughput events, and treated 1,324 March 2022 long waiter cohort patients.
The current and future impact of the plan’s hubs and surgical centres on the health system’s performance is unclear
Rapid access hubs
Rapid access hubs are facilities within a health service that are dedicated to planned surgeries.
The plan initially aimed to establish 8 hubs. In 2023–24, the government announced 4 additional hubs, bringing the total to 12 hubs. The department delivered all 12 hubs by 2023–24.
Rapid access hubs can deliver an increased number of planned surgeries and procedures by:
- protecting theatre capacity from emergency demand
- offering alternate care pathways
- reducing waiting times for low-risk, high-volume procedures.
The department intended for these hubs to be ongoing beyond the plan’s completion date. It expects the hubs will deliver up to 12,900 procedures per year.
However, the department told us it is not easy for health services to report the number of planned surgeries their hubs deliver when the hub is part of an existing facility. Instead, most health services include their hubs' performance in their overall performance reporting.
The department engaged with health services through regular performance monitoring meetings. But neither the department nor the health services could directly report on the hubs' performance.
Frankston and Blackburn public surgical centres
The Frankston Public Surgical Centre had a target to deliver 9,000 surgeries per year under the plan. However, it delivered 8,862 procedures over the plan's 2-year timeframe.
The centre is unlikely to meet its internal target of 7,425 procedures for 2024–25. It delivered 4,584 procedures from 1 July 2024 to 28 February 2025.
The plan aimed for the Blackburn Public Surgical Centre to deliver 5,760 surgeries per year until June 2024. However, it only delivered 1,519 surgeries.
Both centres have continued to operate beyond June 2024. However, the impact that they will have on the health system’s performance is unclear. This is due to uncertainty regarding ongoing resourcing, existing capacity and future needs.
Appendix A: Submissions and comments
Download a PDF copy of Appendix A: Submissions and comments.
Appendix B: Abbreviations, acronyms and glossary
Download a PDF copy of Appendix B: Abbreviations, acronyms and glossary.
Appendix C: Audit scope and method
Download a PDF copy of Appendix C: Audit scope and method.