About 874,000 patients were added to the public hospital elective surgery waiting list in 2017 and 2018, an increase of 70,000 people since 2013.
The figures in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report have also revealed it took, on average, 268 days for 90 per cent of patients to undergo surgery in the last financial year, a 10-day increase on the previous year.
Indigenous Australians waited longer, on average, than non-Indigenous people for surgery, with half seen within 48 days.