Breast lump removal waiting times in Australian public hospitals
The national median wait for breast lump removal in Australian public hospitals was 17 days in 2024–25 — from 6 days at St Vincent's On the Park to 47 days at Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital. The source publishes this surgery as "Breast lump - excision and/or biopsy".
Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released
Across Australia, the median wait for breast lump removal in public hospitals was 17 days in 2024–25, from 10691 surgeries. 0.2% of people waited more than 365 days. 105 public hospitals published a median wait for it.
Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Breast lump - excision and/or biopsy" and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.
State by state
| Rank | State or territory | Median wait | Waited more than 365 days | Surgeries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victoria | 14 days | 0.3% | 3464 surgeries |
| 2 | New South Wales | 19 days | 0.1% | 2784 surgeries |
| 2 | Western Australia | 19 days | 0.2% | 1255 surgeries |
| 4 | Queensland | 20 days | 0.3% | 2328 surgeries |
| 4 | South Australia | 20 days | 0.3% | 626 surgeries |
| 6 | Tasmania | 22 days | 0.0% | 232 surgeries |
| unranked | Northern Territory | not published | not published | not published |
How the wait has changed
- Australia
- VIC
- NSW
- WA
View these numbers as a table
| Reference period | Australia (days) | VIC (days) | NSW (days) | WA (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 15 |
| 2017–18 | 15 | 13 | 17 | 18 |
| 2018–19 | 16 | 14 | 18 | 19 |
| 2019–20 | 16 | 14 | 16 | 18 |
| 2020–21 | 16 | 13 | 19 | 17 |
| 2021–22 | 16 | 14 | 17 | 16 |
| 2022–23 | 17 | 14 | 18 | 18 |
| 2023–24 | 17 | 14 | 20 | 18 |
| 2024–25 | 17 | 14 | 19 | 19 |
Common questions
How long is the wait for breast lump removal in a public hospital?
The national median was 17 days in 2024–25 — half of people waited less than that, half waited longer. State medians ranged from 14 days in Victoria to 22 days in Tasmania.
Which public hospital has the shortest wait for breast lump removal?
Of the 105 public hospitals that published a median for 2024–25, St Vincent's On the Park reported the shortest (6 days) and Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital the longest (47 days). A shorter median is not a recommendation — how to read these figures.
How many people waited more than a year?
0.2% of people who had breast lump removal in an Australian public hospital in 2024–25 waited more than 365 days.
Cite this page
The national median wait for breast lump removal in Australian public hospitals was 17 days in 2024–25, from 6 days at St Vincent's On the Park to 47 days at Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital.
Copy-ready citation
Surgery Waits, "Breast lump removal waiting list by state, 2024–25", 2024–25 data released 28 May 2026, https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/breast-lump-removal/, accessed 28 May 2026.Attribution: Surgery Waits (https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/breast-lump-removal/), from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare MyHospitals data, CC BY 3.0 AU. Reference period 2024–25, released 28 May 2026.
Embed the chart
The state comparison is also published as a standalone image at a stable address — the SVG chart — free to embed or link with the attribution below:
<img src="https://surgerywaits.au/charts/breast-lump-removal.svg" width="720" height="352" alt="Median public hospital waiting time for Breast lump removal by state and territory, 2024–25">What is not here
Public hospitals only. Private hospitals do not report to this collection, so their waiting times cannot be compared here.
The source calls this collection "elective surgery". This site calls it planned surgery, because the surgery is planned in advance rather than optional — the methodology explains the wording.