Surgery Waits

Public hospital surgery waiting times in Northern Territory

In 2024–25, Northern Territory's median waits ranged from 1 day for curettage and evacuation of uterus to 377 days for eardrum repair, across 6 public hospitals.

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

Northern Territory public hospitals report their planned-surgery waiting times to the national collection once a year. This page brings the state's figures together: every surgery type with a published state median, every hospital, and the urgency-category performance — each linking to the detailed comparison.

Compare this near you → On the compare page, pick a surgery and type your suburb to see the public hospitals within reach, ordered by their published wait. Nothing you type there is kept.

Waiting times by surgery in Northern Territory

Median waiting time by surgery type in Northern Territory public hospitals, 2024–25, shortest first. Surgeries with the same median share a rank. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
Rank Surgery State median National median Waited more than 365 days Hospitals reporting
1 Curettage and evacuation of uterus 1 day 4 days 0.0% 5
2 Dialysis access surgery 19 days 15 days 1.0% 3
2 Dilatation and curettage 19 days 28 days 0.2% 5
4 Skin lesion removal 24 days 26 days 1.1% 5
5 Cystoscopy 39 days 26 days 1.9% 3
6 Gallbladder removal 42 days 48 days 0.0% 5
7 Inguinal hernia repair 43 days 73 days 0.8% 5
8 Prostate biopsy 50 days 33 days 0.8% 3
9 LLETZ procedure 61 days 33 days 1.0% 5
10 Arthroscopy 81 days 78 days 12.5% 4
11 Tonsillectomy 116 days 182 days 15.3% 3
12 Cataract surgery 162 days 106 days 20.4% 5
13 Eardrum repair 377 days 264 days 52.8% 5

Treated on time, by urgency category

Urgency figures cover all planned surgery at the hospital, not one procedure. They are never combined with the procedure figures. What each category means, with every hospital compared nationally, is on the urgency categories pages.

Share of patients treated within the clinically recommended time at Northern Territory public hospitals, by urgency category, 2024–25. Ranked on Category 1 (urgent); hospitals with the same figure share a rank. Every figure was released on 2026-05-28.
RankHospitalCategory 1 (urgent)Category 2 (semi-urgent)Category 3 (non-urgent)
1 Alice Springs Hospital88%61%81%
2 Gove Hospital77%46%55%
3 Palmerston Regional Hospital72%64%77%
4 Katherine Hospital71%57%95%
5 Royal Darwin Hospital69%57%58%

Compare a surgery at the big hospitals

Each link is one surgery at one hospital: the published median, the nearest alternatives — including across the border — and fourteen years of history.

Cite this page

In 2024–25, Northern Territory's published median waits for planned surgery ranged from 1 day for curettage and evacuation of uterus to 377 days for eardrum repair, across 6 public hospitals.

Copy-ready citation

SurgeryWaits, "Public hospital waiting lists in Northern Territory", 2024–25 data released 28 May 2026, https://surgerywaits.au/state/nt/, accessed 28 May 2026.

Attribution: SurgeryWaits (https://surgerywaits.au/state/nt/), from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare MyHospitals data, CC BY 3.0 AU. Reference period 2024–25, released 28 May 2026.

Every public hospital in Northern Territory

Sorted by how many surgery types each reported for 2024–25. A hospital's own page lists every surgery it reports, its urgency-category figures and its history.

What is not here

Public hospitals only. Private hospitals do not report to this collection, so their waiting times cannot be compared here.

State medians cover everyone who had that surgery in the state, in all urgency categories together — how these figures are put together.