NSW Health has approved the recommencement of non-urgent day surgery at private facilities due to declining community transmission of COVID-19 and increasing vaccination rates across the State.
In a statement, the Department said day surgery that did not require patients to stay in hospital overnight recommenced yesterday (5 October) for both public and private patients in private facilities only.
“This is to ensure we retain adequate system capacity, as well as patient, staff and public safety, for the delivery of healthcare services during the COVID-19 response,” NSW Health said.
“Emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue to be performed in public hospitals during this challenging period,” it said.
“Surgery restrictions will only be in place as long as necessary.”
NSW Health encouraged patients who were due to receive non-urgent elective surgery to seek medical attention if they experienced a change in their condition, “so they can be clinically assessed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required”.
The Department said private hospitals were being provided with funding to undertake additional elective surgery on behalf of the State’s health system to ensure that patients who had had their non-urgent elective surgery postponed would be scheduled for surgery as soon as possible.
“Staff from private hospitals across Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, as well as some regional locations, are being deployed to assist the NSW Government’s response to the current COVID-19 outbreak,” it said.
“This includes the large-scale vaccination effort currently underway and supporting workforce demands in the NSW public health system.”
NSW Health acknowledged the importance of private hospitals in delivering timely and high-quality care for communities and thanked them for their ongoing partnership in responding to the pandemic.
