Performance data for the September quarter shows waiting times fell by six days at Wollongong Hospital and by about four days at Shellharbour Hospital.

However the waits remain significantly longer than 2007 levels.

The average wait at Wollongong Hospital - around 91 days - is about two weeks longer than in June 2007. At Shellharbour the wait is 131 days, up from about 48 days. Waiting times have also risen by about 51 per cent at Shoalhaven Hospital.

Liberal MP for South Coast Shelley Hancock said the results were evidence of Labor government mismanagement.

"Surgery waiting lists across the Illawarra and South Coast have blown out to record levels due to the State Government's failure to adequately manage the area's health network," she said.

"The State Government previously committed to slashing waiting lists - they have failed miserably."

Southern Hospital Network general manger Sue Browbank declined to comment on data from past years, but said recent performance at Shellharbour Hospital had been impacted by the transfer of two surgical specialties from Bulli Hospital.

At Bulli Hospital, where the surgical service was this year reduced to a single specialty, waiting times fell to about 138 days, still well above the 108-day average wait in June 2007.

Ms Browbank said the recent appointment of a new orthopaedic surgeon at Shoalhaven Hospital had increased demand at the site.

"The appointment of the hospital's new on-site orthopaedic surgeon has created a specialised service that previously did not exist at Shoalhaven Hospital - a fact not mentioned in Ms Hancock's media release," she said.

"The provision of the orthopaedic surgery at Shoalhaven Hospital has created a demand in surgical services at the hospital, however continues to provide significant benefit to patients accessing this service.

"Patients at Shoalhaven Hospital are now able to access and remain in their local hospital for this procedure, whereas previously they would have been transferred to another hospital providing orthopaedic surgery, such as Wollongong Hospital."

The hospital's clinical council was working with local clinicians and models of emergency surgery, to ensure patients planned for both emergency and elective surgery continued to receive their procedures in an appropriate time frame, she said.

Ms Browbank said both Shoalhaven and Shellharbour hospitals continued to achieve all surgical benchmark targets set by NSW Health for elective surgery.