Patients wait longer for operations

THE average wait for an operation in Spain has now risen to 73 days. 

At the beginning of this year, there were 459,885 people on the waiting list for an operation in Spain, 67,813 more than the same time last year. 

Almost 10 per cent of people in Spain wait more than six months for an operation, and although the average wait is 73 days, this varies depending on the specialty. 

Those with the longest waiting lists are plastic surgery, paediatric surgery and brain surgery, with an average of between 90 and 98 days, while the shortest waits are for dermatology (42) and gynaecology (56). 

Meanwhile, the waiting list with most people on is traumatology (126,688), followed by ophthalmology (92,541) and general and digestive surgery (87,152). 

There are 74,473 people waiting for cataracts operations and 19,473 waiting for hip replacements.