Elective Surgery

What is an Elective Surgery Wait list?

After being informed by your doctor that you require an operation/procedure, you will be placed on the Eastern Health elective surgery waiting list.

The timing of your elective surgery is based on the urgency category that your doctor has assigned.

These categories are:

Category 1: Admission within 30 days desirable for a condition that has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the point that it may become an emergency.

Category 2: Admission within 90 days desirable due to the clinical condition of the patient.

Category 3: Admission within 365 days is desirable due to the clinical condition of the patient.

Eastern Health aims to treat patients within these time frames; however, from time to time more urgent cases may result in longer timeframes.

When will I receive a date for my operation/Procedure?

Once you have been placed on the Elective Surgery Wait list for your procedure, Eastern Health will contact you with a date for your procedure. This may mean that you may not be contacted by our Liaison Nurses for quite some time. To ensure minimal delays, you must notify the Elective Surgery Access Unit of any changes to your mailing address or contact numbers. Please contact the Elective Surgery Access Unit on the contact details provided in the letter you receive when you are referred to the waiting list.

Do I have to take the date that is offered to me?

Eastern Health will aim to give you adequate notice prior to your procedure. If you are unable to attend your scheduled date you must notify the Elective Surgery Access Unit as soon as possible. We will attempt to provide a new booking as early as possible. Please make sure that our staffs are kept up to date with your current contact details.

Please note that you may be removed from the waiting list if you:

defer your procedure on two or more occasions
fail to attend on two occasions
Indicate that you will not be available for treatment for a long period of time.

Pre-Admission Clinic

If you need an operation/procedure, you may need to come to the Pre-Admission Clinic to make sure that we have completed all the tests we need to do before your operation and that you are well prepared.

On the day of your Pre-Admission Clinic appointment, a team including a doctor, anaesthetist, and nurse work together to complete an assessment of your current health care needs for your planned operation. This is to ensure you are fully informed and safe to proceed. In addition, you may also see other clinical staff at this appointment including: occupational therapist, physiotherapist, dietician or other specialists.

We ask you to allow up to 3-4 hours for your appointment, so ensure you have eaten and have a drink available. You may also want to consider making arrangements for child care and parking. You will generally be seen in order of appointment time and there may be 2 or 3 people booked at the same time. Please be aware you will see multiple staff during your clinic appointment.

Based on the assessment from the nurse, doctor and anaesthetist you may be required to complete some tests which may be done during or after your visit. It is important for you to attend these tests to ensure your suitability for surgery. You may be requested to have:

ECG (Electrocardiogram)
Blood or Urine Test (Pathology)
Radiology test (X-rays or CT or MRI)
Heart tests such as Cardiopulmonary Exercise, Echocardiogram or Stress Echocardiogram
Respiratory Function Test (Lung function)

If you have had any of these tests done previously it would be helpful to bring these results with you on the day of your Pre-Admission Clinic appointment.

What to bring to your appointment

All of your medicines, eye drops, insulin in their original containers, including non-prescribed medicines bought at the pharmacy, supermarket or health food shop and herbal remedies.
Recent private X-rays and/or Pathology results
Contact details of your private specialist doctors e.g. Lung or Heart Specialist.
Pacemaker and/or Defibrillator information and any recent check reports or letter from your cardiologist
Medicare Card, Health Care Card, Pension, Veterans Affairs, Private Health insurance