Cataract surgery waiting time at Lachlan Health Service - Forbes

The median wait for cataract surgery — published by the source as "Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion)" — at this public hospital in the Forbes area of New South Wales was 182 days in 2024–25.

Reference period 2024–25 (1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025) · released 28 May 2026

These figures describe surgery that already happened, not your own wait.

Median wait: 182 days2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Surgeries completed: 262 surgeries2024–25 · released 28 May 2026
Waited more than 365 days: 2.7%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 132 public hospitals that published a median wait for this surgery in 2024–25, this one sits at 84 when they are ordered from shortest median to longest. Hospitals with the same median share a rank.

The median wait here has fallen from 279 days in 2011–12 to 182 days in 2024–25 — down 35% — while the national median rose from 89 days to 106 days. The nearest public hospital with a shorter published wait is Mudgee Health Service, about 171 km away, at 138 days. Here, 2.7% of people waited more than 365 days for this surgery; nationally it was 11.5%.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick "Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion)" 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 Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion), 2024–25.
Where	Median wait	Waited more than 365 days	Surgeries
Lachlan Health Service - Forbes	182 days	2.7%	262 surgeries
New South Wales (all public hospitals)	268 days	22.0%	32695 surgeries
Australia (all public hospitals)	106 days	11.5%	87841 surgeries

Where the wait is shorter nearby

Bars show the median wait in days. The vertical line at 106 days marks the national median.

Cowra Health ServiceNSW · about 79 km away339 days
Orange Health ServiceNSW · about 101 km away335 days
Dubbo HospitalNSW · about 141 km away201 days
Bathurst Base HospitalNSW · about 145 km away330 days
Mudgee Health ServiceNSW · about 171 km away138 days
Lithgow HospitalNSW · about 196 km away231 days
Wagga Wagga HospitalNSW · about 201 km away338 days
Griffith Base HospitalNSW · about 207 km away90 days

Distances are straight-line, measured between hospital locations, and are approximate. The search covered 250 km.

How the wait has changed

Lachlan Health Service - Forbes
NSW
Australia

View these numbers as a table

Median wait in days for Cataract extraction (with or without intra-ocular lens insertion), by financial year. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Reference period	Lachlan Health Service - Forbes (days)	NSW (days)	Australia (days)
2011–12	279	233	89
2012–13	253	238	89
2013–14	247	218	79
2014–15	247	221	83
2015–16	222	240	93
2016–17	152	224	85
2017–18	134	223	87
2018–19	139	245	84
2019–20	237	286	98
2020–21	357	290	172
2021–22	322	278	158
2022–23	389	282	133
2023–24	261	262	119
2024–25	182	268	106

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

All surgery at Lachlan Health Service - Forbes · Cataract surgery across Australia · Cataract surgery in New South Wales