A new study has revealed Australia has the second longest healthcare waiting time in the OECD, with a median wait time of 84 days for cataract surgery and more than two thirds waiting over a month for a specialist appointment.
Health experts at NiceRx – which helps US patients access FDA-approved brand name medications from pharmaceutical companies – have revealed the countries with the highest and lowest healthcare expenditure, as well as those with the highest and lowest life expectancy and the longest and shortest healthcare waiting times.
Other healthcare waiting times for Australia, included:
- 14% of patients are waiting one day or more to hear back from a doctor
- 39% of patients are waiting over a month for a specialist appointment
- The median wait time for cataract surgery is 84 days
- The median wait time for hip replacement surgery is 119 days
- The median wait time for knee replacement surgery is 209 days.
For cataract surgery, Australia ranked seventh for the longest wait time, with the list topped by Poland (246 days), and Italy performing the best (24 days).
Further findings from the study revealed the US had the world’s highest healthcare expenditure per capita annually (US$12,318). This figure is over $US5,000 more than Germany, which has the second highest total (US$7,383). Australia ranked 11th at (US$5,627).
Hong Kong topped the list for life expectancy, averaging 85.29 years of age (82.38 male and 88.17 female). Australia ranked seventh at 83.94 years (82.08 male and 85.80 female). In comparison, Latvia has the shortest life expectancy in the world, averaging 75.73 years.
Norway has the longest healthcare waiting times of the countries profiled, with the country scoring a normalised waiting time score of 8.13. In comparison, Denmark has the shortest healthcare waiting times, with a score of 2.0/10.
More information about the research can be found here, including the methodology used for each finding.
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