Non-urgent elective surgery recommenced at public and private facilities within Greater Sydney on Monday (25 October), after it was temporarily postponed to support the health system’s response to the recent Delta outbreak.
Deputy Secretary of NSW Health, Wayne Jones said the safe recommencement of non-urgent elective surgery was once again possible in public hospitals for the first time since 2 August.
“Thanks to the extraordinarily high vaccination rates across the State and declining community transmission of COVID-19, patients can now have their non-urgent surgery,” Mr Jones said.
“NSW Health will at the same time continue to ensure our integrated hospital system has the capacity to manage the ongoing COVID-19 response,” he said.
“Overnight elective surgery will be capped at 75 per cent in both public and private facilities in the Greater Sydney area, including Nepean Blue Mountains.”
Mr Jones said private facilities within the region could exceed this cap if they were providing surgery for public patients.
The Deputy Secretary said there would be no restrictions on facilities in regional NSW that provided overnight non-urgent elective surgery.
“Where necessary, local health districts may impose temporary restrictions in the event of an outbreak to ensure the community is kept safe and can access hospital care if required,” he said.
Mr Jones said all emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery continued to be performed across the State while non-urgent surgery was postponed in public hospitals in Greater Sydney from 2 August and in many private hospitals from 23 August.
He said non-urgent elective day surgery resumed on 5 October in NSW private hospitals for both public and private patients.
Mr Jones thanked the staff from many private hospitals across the State who assisted NSW Health’s response to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
