According to the most recent statement from the Valencian Health Department, which was in December 2025, the Elche General Hospital has the longest wait times. The Valencian Community has the longest wait time for surgery, with an average of 137 days. This bad number is worse than the already high 135 days recorded in July 2025, and it is much higher than the current average of 88 days across all public hospitals in the region.
The waiting period at Alicante General Hospital is now 127 days, which is 10 days shorter than at Elche. Dr. Balmis Hospital, which is a referral centre for many specialities, is a little better than it was six months ago, when the wait was 135 days. La Fe Hospital in Valencia has the third-longest wait time, at 122 days, and Castellón Hospital has the fourth-longest, at 119 days.
The three that see the most patients
It’s hardly surprising that the hospitals in Alicante and Elche have the highest waiting lists because they are the two biggest hospitals in the province. There are 7,158 persons waiting for surgery at the Alicante hospital and 3,482 at the Elche hospital. The Sant Joan d’Alacant hospital, which is situated in the provincial capital, ranks next with 3,347 patients on its waiting list. The average wait time in these hospitals is 113 days, which is longer than the 96 days it was in June. These three hospitals have a total of 14,187 patients who are waiting for a surgeon’s call, which is more than half of the total in the province.
The average wait time in the Community is 88 days, while the following public hospitals have shorter wait times: 79 days in Dénia, 78 days in Elda, 70 days in Torrevieja, 68 days in Orihuela, 62 days in Marina Baixa, 61 days in Alcoy, and 39 days in Elx-Crevillent, which is better known as the Vinalopó hospital area.
According to data from December 2025 from the Regional Ministry of Health, there are currently 26,803 patients in the province of Alicante who are waiting for surgery at one of the ten hospitals in the public healthcare network. This is 557 higher than the last count, which took place in June and found 26,246 people. They make up 36% of all the people on the waiting list in the Valencian Community (72,800). Half of these people have been waiting less than three months for their operation. 3,811 people have been waiting for a call from the surgeon for between three and six months (24% fewer), and 9,956 people have been waiting for more than six months (23% more).
Specialities
The majority of the waiting lists in the province of Alicante are for orthopaedic surgery and traumatology (6,989 patients), ophthalmology (5,836 patients), and general surgery (5,379 patients).
The total is 18,204, or 67%. The 152-day wait (just over five months) at Elche Hospital in Traumatology stands out again, as does the 137-day wait (four and a half months) at Dr Balmis Hospital, which is also in this speciality.
Prosthetic
Some patients at Elche General Hospital have been waiting seven months for a hip replacement and almost six months for knee replacement surgery. It takes between three and four months to get these complicated surgeries done at Alicante General Hospital.
At the Virgen de los Lirios in Alcoy and the Sant Joan Hospital for a hip prosthesis, for example, the wait is shorter than 80 days, at 69 days for a knee and 80 days for a hip.
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