Elective surgery across public and private hospitals is set to return to the State’s hospitals by the end of this month in view of the current Omicron wave expected to stabilise.
Signing off on the restart plan, Minister for Health, Martin Foley said that, from Monday (21 February), public hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne would be able to perform Category Two surgery.
Mr Foley said he would also consider further changes to allow all surgery to resume from 28 February, with a focus on treating Category One and Two patients within clinically recommended timeframes.
“Each hospital will individually assess their own capacity based on staff availability and COVID-19 demands, with 44 hospitals still operating as COVID-19 streaming hospitals,” he said.
“Private hospitals will also be able to increase their elective surgery activity as long as they can continue to provide support for public hospitals to respond to COVID-19 demands.
“From Monday 21 February, private hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne can undertake up to 75 per cent of any elective surgery activity, increasing from 50 per cent.”
Mr Foley said following this, he would consider increasing capacity up to 100 per cent in metropolitan Melbourne.
“In regional Victoria, the cap for private hospitals will increase from the current 75 per cent to up to 100 per cent on Monday 21 February – while regional public hospitals continue to deliver any elective surgery based on their individual capacity,” he said.
The Minister said the number of staff unavailable due to COVID-19 had dropped by around two-thirds, currently sitting about 1,400 people.
