Madrid, the community with the lowest surgical waiting time

50 days average wait in 2025 for surgical interventions. With this figure, Madrid is consolidated, for the fourth consecutive year, as the community with the shortest delay for this type of operations in public health, as can be seen from the indicators of waiting lists in the National Health System (SNS), corresponding to the second half of 2025 as of December 31, published this Thursday by the Ministry of Health.

The region is well below the national average –121 days–. After it, the autonomies with the least delay were the Basque Country (64), Galicia (73) or Rioja (78).

In total, in the third most populated community in the country, there were, in 2025, 80,525 patients in this situation, which represents a rate of 11.23 –the average is in 17.69 per 1,000 inhabitants.

The territory also stands out for having the lowest number of patients who have been waiting for an intervention for more than 6 months: 0.8% of the total –657–, when the national average It is at 21.6%.

Regarding the delay in consulting with a specialist, it is placed in 68 days. In the country as a whole it is 102.

Data from all of Spain by specialty

At the level of all of Spain, up to 853,509 patients They were awaiting surgery.

Traumatology (200,584), Ophthalmology (172,974) and General Surgery (149,749) are the specialties with the highest number of registered patients.

Dermatology with 64 days, and Cardiac surgery and Ophthalmology, both with 77 days, are the specialties with the shortest average waiting times.

The specialty with the longest average waiting time continues to be Plastic Surgery with 269 daysfollowed by Neurosurgery with 172 days and Angiology and Vascular Surgery, with an average wait of 151 days.

On the other hand, knee arthroplasty, cardiac valve surgery, coronary bypass and hysterectomy add up to a total of 37,140 patients (4.4% of the total list).

The average waiting time for these processes is 54 days until coronary bypass71 days for heart valve surgery, 105 days for knee replacement, and 114 days for hysterectomy.

As for the external consultations84.42 out of every 1,000 people were registered on a waiting list for a first consultation in Specialized Hospital Care.

The proportion of patients who had an assigned appointment date more than 60 days away is 61.5%.

The shortest times are observed in General Surgery with an average waiting time of 61 days, Gynecology with 64 days and Cardiology with 68 days.

The specialties with the longest waiting times are: Traumatology with 132 days and Dermatology with 127 days.