Knee replacement waiting time at Cairns Hospital
The median wait for knee replacement — published by the source as "Total knee replacement" — at this public hospital in the Cairns North area of Queensland was 352 days in 2024–25.
Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released
These figures describe surgery that already happened, not your own wait.
- Median wait
- 352 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
- Surgeries completed
- 200 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
- Waited more than 365 days
- 34.5%2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Half the people who had this surgery here waited less than the median, and half waited longer. Of the 128 public hospitals that published a median wait for this surgery in 2024–25, this one sits at 102 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.
The median wait here has risen from 149 days in 2011–12 to 352 days in 2024–25 — up 136% — while the national median rose from 184 days to 255 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Townsville University Hospital, about 288 km away, at 318 days. Here, 34.5% of people waited more than 365 days for this surgery; nationally it was 23.2%.
Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Total knee replacement" and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.
How this compares
| Where | Median wait | Waited more than 365 days | Surgeries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns Hospital | 352 days | 34.5% | 200 surgeries |
| Queensland (all public hospitals) | 266 days | 21.5% | 2712 surgeries |
| Australia (all public hospitals) | 255 days | 23.2% | 17987 surgeries |
Where the wait is shorter nearby
Distances are straight-line, measured between hospital locations, and are approximate. The search covered 1000 km — the radius was widened because fewer than four hospitals published a figure within 250 km.
How the wait has changed
- Cairns Hospital
- QLD
- Australia
View these numbers as a table
| Reference period | Cairns Hospital (days) | QLD (days) | Australia (days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011–12 | 149 | 120 | 184 |
| 2012–13 | 118 | 153 | 196 |
| 2013–14 | 285 | 146 | 194 |
| 2014–15 | 305 | 92 | 191 |
| 2015–16 | 303 | 88 | 188 |
| 2016–17 | 110 | 140 | 195 |
| 2017–18 | 346 | 181 | 198 |
| 2018–19 | 351 | 211 | 209 |
| 2019–20 | 354 | 233 | 223 |
| 2020–21 | 371 | 311 | 308 |
| 2021–22 | 335 | 305 | 293 |
| 2022–23 | 364 | 334 | 308 |
| 2023–24 | 342 | 276 | 265 |
| 2024–25 | 352 | 266 | 255 |
Queensland's quarterly figures for orthopaedic surgery
These are not figures for total knee replacement. Queensland reports by surgical specialty, not by procedure. A specialty covers many different operations, so a specialty figure is never a figure for any one of them.
Queensland Health publishes its own figures every three months. They count differently from the national figures above and are never combined with them. This quarter ends after the national reporting period, so it is the more recent of the two.
Covers July to September 2025, published by Queensland Health on 28 October 2025. Reported as Cairns.
- Patients treated
- 335 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
- Treated within the recommended time
- 64.2%July to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
- Still waiting at the end of the quarter
- 720 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
- Waiting longer than recommended
- 146 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
Public hospitals only — what these figures include and leave out.
All surgery at Cairns Hospital · Knee replacement across Australia · Knee replacement in Queensland