Operations with longer waiting times in public health

He Ministry of Health has presented the latest data on waiting lists in the National Health Systemat the end of the first half of 2025, thus as of June 30 there were 832,728 patients pending a non-urgent surgical intervention with an average waiting time of 118.6 dayswhich represents 1.84% fewer patients and 2.4 fewer days compared to June 30, 2024. In addition, 19.6% of the patients had been included in waiting list more than 6 months, in this case it decreases 0.9 points.

Health sources consulted remind Europa Press that, together with the CCAA, a new information system on waiting lists of the National Health System is being developed, which will replace the model in force since 2003. “This joint effort seeks to unify criteria, guarantee the traceability of patients from diagnosis to intervention and have homogeneous, comparable and more representative data of the healthcare reality throughout the territory,” they say.

202,144 patients are waiting for trauma surgery

As in previous years, traumatology It heads the list of specialties with the highest number of waiting lists (with 202,144 patients, 6,435 fewer patients in one year). They follow this one Ophthalmology (170,096 patients, 7,008 less than in 2024), and General and Digestive Surgery, with 140,289, up to 9,261 fewer patients.

Likewise, the Thoracic Surgery remains the specialty in which there are fewer people waitingwith a total of 2,918 patients, which implies an increase compared to the December 2024 figures of 219 more people; This is followed by cardiac surgery with 3,234 people on waiting lists.

The specialty with the longest average waiting time continues to be plastic surgery with 259 days, followed by neurosurgery with 173 days and angiology and vascular surgery with an average wait of 160 days. Cardiac surgery, with 57 days, and Dermatology and Ophthalmology, with 69 and 75 days, respectively, are the specialties with the shortest average waiting times.

The 11 processes that are specifically monitored in this information system have an average waiting time of 91 days; five days less than last year. Of these processes, cataract surgery has the most patients waiting, 123,263 with a 65-day wait, while the one with the least is the pilomidal cyst with 5,636 patients and a 109-day wait.

Coronary by-ass, 48-day wait

In relation to the 5 surgical processes subject to a waiting time guarantee in the SNS (180 days), coronary bypass surgery has an average wait of 48 days and 1.6% of patients wait longer than the established maximum period and cardiac valve surgery has 58 days with 4.3% of patients waiting longer than 180 days.

The cataract surgery, which is the most frequent elective intervention, its average waiting time is 65 days with 3.8% of patients exceeding 180 days. Hip replacement, 95 days, and knee replacement, 102 days, are the procedures with the longest average delay and percentage of patients that exceed the maximum times (11.7 and 12.7% respectively).

The hospitals in the SNS network annually carry out more than 3.5 million surgical interventionsincluding both urgent and scheduled ones (the latter are what make up the Waiting Lists). In the first half of 2024, entries on the waiting list for elective surgery have decreased by 4.3% compared to the same period of the previous year.

The total number of departures notified in the period (both with intervention and without intervention) has decreased compared to the first half of 2024 by 5.9%, meaning that the entry/exit index has been 0.96 compared to the 0.95 registered in said period.

Increases waiting time for consultation

On the other hand, 81.4 out of every 1,000 people were registered in a Waiting list for a first consultation in Specialized Hospital Care; a figure 2.4 points lower than that of June 2024. The average waiting time in this case is 96 days, 2 days more than in the June 2024 cut-off. The proportion of patients who had an appointment date assigned for more than 60 days is 61.8%. This indicator, which in June 2024 stood at 54.6%, has been subjected to an adjustment in its calculation, “so its comparability is not possible at this cut,” they warn.

The shortest times are observed in General Surgery with an average waiting time of 52 days, Gynecology with 55 days and Cardiology with 64 days. The specialties with the longest waiting times are: Dermatology with 121 days, and Traumatology with 114 days, and Neurology with 111 days.

By specialties, Traumatology with 12.67 pending patients per 1,000 inhabitants, is the consultation with the longest wait; This is followed by Ophthalmology (11.65 patients per 1,000), Dermatology (7.56) and ENT (7.28).

Catalonia, the community with the most patients waiting

Taking into account the rate per inhabitant that stands at 17.35 patients per 1,000 inhabitants, the autonomous community with the most patients on the non-urgent surgical waiting list is Catalonia with 25.39 per 1,000 inhabitants. It is closely followed by Cantabria (25.39), La Rioja (22.64), Andalusia (22.58), Murcia (21.74), Extremadura (20.83), Asturias (20.80), Aragón (19.04), Galicia (18.75) and Castilla-La Mancha (17.98).

Below the average: the Autonomous City of Ceuta (14.78), Navarra (14.65), the Canary Islands (14.61), the Autonomous City of Ceuta (12.44), the Balearic Islands (12.20), the Basque Country (10.87), Castilla y León (10.76), Madrid (9.96) and the Valencian Community (9.85).

By waiting time, the CCAA where the most wait is Andalusia (160 days on average), Catalonia (148 days waiting), Extremadura (134 days), Aragón (131 days) and Cantabria with 128 days. Below the 118 days national average are: Castilla-La Mancha (116 days), the Canary Islands (109), the Balearic Islands (105), Murcia (97), Melilla (89), Ceuta (86), Navarra (82), the Valencian Community (81), Castilla y León (80), Asturias (79), Galicia (69), La Rioja (64), the Basque Country (61) and Madrid (49).

A new information system is underway with the CCAA

The Ministry of Health has reminded Europa Press that, “in collaboration with the autonomous communities, it is developing a new information system on waiting lists of the National Health System.” To this end, it has established a working group divided into four specialized subgroups: the improvement of hospital information systems, the definition of maximum access times, the development of recommendations to reduce delays and the integration of primary care in the monitoring system.

Until the new system is fully implemented, information will continue to be published in the current format since guarantees “transparency and public availability of data, while completing the transition towards a revised system that more accurately reflects the reality of care and allows more consistent comparisons between autonomous communities.

Regarding waiting lists for consultations: Madrid (112.14), Asturias (104.81), Andalusia (100.75), Navarra (91.34), Aragón (87.77), Extremadura (88.76) and Valencian Community (85.39) exceed the measure of 81.37 patients per 100,000 inhabitants. The rest data are below average. By days, if the average is 96 days, this figure is exceeded by: the Canary Islands (150 days), Navarra (142 days), Aragon (138 days), Andalusia (127 days), Catalonia (112 days) and Extremadura (110).