There are 13,502 pending operations at Mater Dei Hospital, figures  given in Parliament show.

The longest list if for the removal of cataracts, with 4,752.

The waiting list for other operations is the following:

Total knee arthroplasty – 2,093; total hip arthroplasty – 379; knee arthroscopy – 2,284.

Knee surgery – 159; neurosurgery – 179; urology, 73; ENT – 355; general surgery – 1,418; gynaecology 35; cardiac interventions – 1,748 and dentistry, 27.

There are no pending operations on children.

In all cases,  Health Minister Joseph Cassar said waiting time depended on the urgency of the case.

He noted that 41,000 operations were performed at Mater Dei last year, which was 9,000 more than the last full year at St Luke’s.

The governemnt, he said, was committed to further increasing the number of operations and the focus was on reducing waiting time, rather than on the waiting lists.

He said that in with regard to the lists,  the authorities were sometimes not informed when the patients had an operation elsewhere, they passed away or they could not undergo their operation, and they therefore remained on the lists.

The turnover of operations depended ont he availability of theatres and edical staff  and the availability of beds.