Referral to a different hospital

How the site lists nearby hospitals

Each hospital with a recorded location has a list of its 8 nearest open public hospitals. The distance is a straight line between two recorded locations. The site measures no road distance and no travel time.

The search ignores state borders, so a hospital near a border can list hospitals in the next state. The hospital and surgery page shows the hospitals on that list that published a shorter median wait for the surgery.

• Public hospitals

Hospitals across a state border

The border page compares hospitals in different states that lie within 100 km of each other. It ranks the 25 largest differences between two medians for one procedure.

• Waits across state borders

What the figures leave out

The published figures do not cover these points.

• The figures leave out the wait to see a specialist, which comes before a patient joins the surgery list.
• The figures do not say whether a hospital accepts a referral from outside its own area.
• The figures give no travel time or travel cost.
• The figures do not give the wait of any one patient. A median describes the patients treated in 2024–25.

Questions to bring to a referral discussion

A patient can put these questions to a general practitioner or a specialist. The decision rests with the patient and the treating doctors.

• Which public hospitals offer this surgery?
• How long is the wait to see the specialist at each of those hospitals, before the surgery list starts?
• What follow-up care would the surgery need, and where would that care take place?