Surgery Waits

Female sterilisation waiting time at Cairns Hospital

The median wait for female sterilisation at this public hospital in the Cairns North area of Queensland was 361 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
361 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed
25 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days
not published2024–25 · released 28 May 2026 — Reported data did not meet the criteria to calculate this indicator.

Half the people who had this surgery here waited less than the median, and half waited longer. Of the 53 public hospitals that published a median wait for this surgery in 2024–25, this one sits at 50 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has risen from 301 days in 2016–17 to 361 days in 2024–25 — up 20% — while the national median rose from 74 days to 129 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Townsville University Hospital, about 288 km away, at 182 days.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Female sterilisation" 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

Median wait, long waits and volume for Female sterilisation, 2024–25.
Where Median wait Waited more than 365 days Surgeries
Cairns Hospital361 daysnot published25 surgeries
Queensland (all public hospitals)151 days12.8%500 surgeries
Australia (all public hospitals)129 days11.5%1388 surgeries

Where the wait is shorter nearby

Bars show the median wait in days. The vertical line at 129 days marks the national median.

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

Median wait for female sterilisation by financial year at Cairns Hospital, compared with Queensland and Australiadays01002003004002016–172018–192020–212022–232024–25Cairns Hospital 361QLD 151Australia 129
  • Cairns Hospital
  • QLD
  • Australia
View these numbers as a table
Median wait in days for Female sterilisation, by financial year. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Reference periodCairns Hospital (days)QLD (days)Australia (days)
2016–173019174
2017–1829813076
2018–1917413678
2019–2011510488
2020–21367133112
2021–22357187112
2022–23370131102
2023–24381168118
2024–25361151129

Queensland's quarterly figures for gynaecology

These are not figures for female sterilisation. 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
299 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
Treated within the recommended time
70.6%July to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
Still waiting at the end of the quarter
516 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025
Waiting longer than recommended
65 patientsJuly to September 2025 · released 28 October 2025

Public hospitals only — what these figures include and leave out.

All surgery at Cairns Hospital · Female sterilisation across Australia · Female sterilisation in Queensland