Public vs Private Cataract Surgery in Queensland

Short answer: Public cataract surgery in Australia is free and safe, but you usually wait twice: first for a public specialist appointment, then for surgery, which had a national median wait of 106 days in 2024–25 (AIHW). As a public patient you don’t choose your surgeon, and your operation may be performed by a supervised trainee (healthdirect). Public hospitals generally provide a standard monofocal lens, because premium lenses are not routinely funded. Private surgery lets you choose your surgeon, your timing and your lens. At Focus Vision, your own surgeon performs your entire operation.

Cataract surgery is the most common planned operation in Australian public hospitals, with about 88,000 admissions in 2024–25 (AIHW, 2025). Both pathways give good results. The differences are in how long you wait, who operates, and which lenses are available. This guide sets out the official figures so you can decide what suits you.

Public vs private at a glance

	Public hospital	Private, at Focus Vision
Cost	Free as a public patient	$2,500 to $5,500 per eye, depending on your health insurance and lens (costs page)
Waiting	A wait for a specialist appointment, then for surgery (national median 106 days)	Booked at a time that suits you; private patients may have a shorter wait (healthdirect)
Your surgeon	Appointed by the hospital; may be a supervised trainee	You choose; your surgeon performs your whole operation
Lens choice	Usually a standard monofocal lens	Monofocal, toric, EDOF or multifocal lenses
After surgery	Hospital follow-up	Follow-up with your surgeon; free YAG laser and laser fine-tuning

Waiting times: the two waits in the public system

Wait one: the specialist appointment. In Queensland, your GP or optometrist refers you to the public eye clinic, and the referral is triaged into an urgency category. A non-urgent (Category 3) specialist appointment is recommended within 365 days (Queensland Audit Office, 2022). In 2021, ophthalmology had more patients waiting longer than recommended for a first appointment than any other specialty in Queensland (Queensland Audit Office, 2022).

Wait two: the surgery. You are only added to the surgery waiting list after a public specialist has assessed you and decided you will benefit from surgery (Queensland Government). Nationally, the median wait for cataract surgery from then was 106 days in 2024–25 (AIHW), and non-urgent (Category 3) surgery is recommended within 365 days (Queensland Health).

Why the wait matters. While you wait, a cataract keeps clouding your vision, which can affect driving, reading, work and confidence. If you need both eyes done, you may wait separately for the second eye.

Who performs your surgery

In a public hospital, you are treated “by a doctor appointed by the hospital” (healthdirect); you can’t choose your surgeon (privatehealth.gov.au). Public hospitals are where eye surgeons train, so your operation may well be performed by a trainee (registrar). At one Australian teaching hospital, trainees performed 47% of cataract operations, consultants 37% and fellows 16% (Khan et al., 2025).

Trainee surgery is supervised and safe. In that study there was no significant difference in complication rates between trainees and consultants, and the hospital’s outcomes were comparable to international benchmarks (Khan et al., 2025). Both our surgeons trained in Queensland’s public hospitals. What you give up is the choice of who operates on you, and continuity with one surgeon from consultation to follow-up.

At Focus Vision, your surgeon and only your surgeon performs your procedure. The surgeon you meet at your consultation, Dr Brendan Cronin or Dr David Gunn, plans your lens, performs your whole operation and sees you afterwards. Both are fellowship-trained corneal and refractive surgeons.

Lens choice

The lens implant decides how well you see at different distances afterwards:

• A standard monofocal lens focuses at one distance, usually far, so you will still need reading glasses. This is what public hospitals generally provide.
• Premium lenses, such as extended depth of focus (EDOF) and multifocal (trifocal) lenses, give a wider range of vision and reduce your need for glasses. They cost more than standard lenses and are not routinely funded in the public system. One Sydney teaching hospital has reported a small pilot program offering multifocal lenses (Sartor et al., 2024), but they are not routinely available to public patients.
• Toric lenses correct astigmatism and can be combined with the other types.

See our guide to lens types for how they compare.

Already had public surgery with a standard lens? If you’d now like to depend less on reading glasses, a multifocal upgrade lens can often be added in front of your existing lens, without removing it.

What private cataract surgery costs

With private health insurance. Your fund contributes to hospital costs if your hospital cover includes the Cataracts clinical category. It is included in all Gold policies, and can be added to Silver and Bronze policies, which are then sold as “Plus” policies (privatehealth.gov.au). If you take out or upgrade cover, a waiting period of up to 12 months applies to pre-existing conditions, which usually includes a cataract you already have (privatehealth.gov.au).

Without health insurance. Cataract surgery is Medicare-eligible (MBS item 42702). As a private patient, Medicare pays 75% of the schedule fee for your surgeon’s in-hospital services, but not hospital costs such as theatre fees (Services Australia). You pay the hospital costs and any gap.

At Focus Vision, cataract surgery is $2,500 to $5,500 per eye, depending on your health insurance and lens choice, with a written quote, including theatre fees, at your surgeon consultation (costs page). Your care also includes:

• YAG laser at no cost, with no time limit, if the capsule behind your lens clouds over later. See YAG laser after cataract surgery.
• Free laser fine-tuning for two years if a small prescription remains, under our enhancement policy.

For more detail, see cataract surgery cost in Brisbane.

Which is right for you?

Public surgery may suit you if cost is your main concern, you are comfortable waiting, a standard monofocal lens and reading glasses suit your needs, and you don’t mind who performs your operation.

Private surgery may suit you if your cataract is affecting your driving, work or daily life now, you want to choose your surgeon and have them perform your operation, or you would like a toric, EDOF or multifocal lens to reduce your need for glasses.

Either way, the first step is an eye examination. To discuss private cataract surgery, book an appointment or call (07) 3239 5005. See also our cataract surgery page.

References

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Elective surgery. AIHW, 2025. aihw.gov.au/hospitals/topics/elective-surgery
2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Elective surgery admissions continue to rise while wait times stabilise (media release). December 2025. aihw.gov.au
3. healthdirect. Public and private hospitals: an overview. healthdirect.gov.au/understanding-the-public-and-private-hospital-systems
4. Australian Government. What is covered by Medicare? privatehealth.gov.au. privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/what_is_covered/medicare.htm
5. Queensland Audit Office. Improving access to specialist outpatient services (Report 8: 2021–22). qao.qld.gov.au
6. Queensland Government. Waiting lists. qld.gov.au/health/services/hospital-care/waiting-lists
7. Queensland Health. Elective surgery performance: Category 3. performance.health.qld.gov.au
8. Khan MA, Lee BWH, Sartor L, Samarawickrama C. Cataract surgery in Australia: a review of the regional literature and outcomes from 5018 cases at a tertiary teaching hospital. BMJ Open Ophthalmol. 2025. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39915237
9. Sartor L, et al. The multifocal pathway: a pilot study of a trainee-led multifocal intraocular lens protocol in a tertiary referral hospital in Australia. Clin Ophthalmol. 2024. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39676770
10. Australian Government. Product tiers. privatehealth.gov.au. privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/howitworks/producttiers.htm
11. Australian Government. Waiting periods. privatehealth.gov.au. privatehealth.gov.au/health_insurance/howitworks/waiting_periods.htm
12. Australian Government Department of Health. Medicare Benefits Schedule, Item 42702. MBS Online. www9.health.gov.au
13. Services Australia. Medical costs. servicesaustralia.gov.au/medical-costs