Grommets waiting times in Australian public hospitals
The national median wait for grommets in Australian public hospitals was 90 days in 2024–25 — from 3 days at Derby Hospital to 357 days at Wagga Wagga Hospital. The source publishes this surgery as "Pressure equalising tubes (grommets) - insertion of".
Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released
Across Australia, the median wait for grommets in public hospitals was 90 days in 2024–25, from 3835 surgeries. 6.5% of people waited more than 365 days. 64 public hospitals published a median wait for it.
Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Pressure equalising tubes (grommets) - insertion of" 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 | South Australia | 78 days | 2.2% | 580 surgeries |
| 1 | Victoria | 78 days | 4.4% | 1054 surgeries |
| 3 | Tasmania | 81 days | 5.0% | 140 surgeries |
| 4 | Western Australia | 91 days | 5.4% | 608 surgeries |
| 5 | New South Wales | 128 days | 10.5% | 1428 surgeries |
| unranked | Northern Territory | not published | not published | 25 surgeries |
How the wait has changed
- Australia
- SA
- VIC
- TAS
View these numbers as a table
| Reference period | Australia (days) | SA (days) | VIC (days) | TAS (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | 58 | 46 | 68 | 69 |
| 2017–18 | 70 | 67 | 82 | 64 |
| 2018–19 | 68 | 54 | 50 | 109 |
| 2019–20 | 73 | 56 | 46 | 149 |
| 2020–21 | 93 | not published | 69 | 93 |
| 2021–22 | 79 | not published | 58 | 80 |
| 2022–23 | 84 | not published | 80 | not published |
| 2023–24 | 94 | 85 | 94 | 88 |
| 2024–25 | 90 | 78 | 78 | 81 |
Common questions
How long is the wait for grommets in a public hospital?
The national median was 90 days in 2024–25 — half of people waited less than that, half waited longer. State medians ranged from 78 days in South Australia to 128 days in New South Wales.
Which public hospital has the shortest wait for grommets?
Of the 64 public hospitals that published a median for 2024–25, Derby Hospital reported the shortest (3 days) and Wagga Wagga Hospital the longest (357 days). A shorter median is not a recommendation — how to read these figures.
How many people waited more than a year?
6.5% of people who had grommets in an Australian public hospital in 2024–25 waited more than 365 days.
Cite this page
The national median wait for grommets in Australian public hospitals was 90 days in 2024–25, from 3 days at Derby Hospital to 357 days at Wagga Wagga Hospital.
Copy-ready citation
Surgery Waits, "Grommets waiting list: wait times by state, 2024–25", 2024–25 data released 28 May 2026, https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/grommets/, accessed 28 May 2026.Attribution: Surgery Waits (https://surgerywaits.au/surgery/grommets/), 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/grommets.svg" width="720" height="318" alt="Median public hospital waiting time for Grommets 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.