Full return of elective surgery from midnight on Wednesday in SA

SA will lead the nation with a full resumption of elective surgery from midnight on Wednesday as coronavirus is contained and millions of face masks become available.

• Elective surgery to ramp up, just one active COVID case

All elective surgery can resume as restrictions are lifted from midnight Wednesday in a nation-leading boost for thousands of patients on waiting lists.

South Australia will become the first state to begin to fully restore elective surgery with the lifting of the Appropriate Surgery Direction under the Emergency Management Declaration.

This had halted non-urgent elective surgery as the COVID-19 crisis unfolded, to free up space for a possible massive influx of coronavirus patients and also due to shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE).

While some non-urgent elective procedures have been restored as well as BreastScreen SA examinations, the lifting of the direction means full elective surgery can resume.

The move, foreshadowed by The Advertiser, follows the government securing 48,000 surgical N95 masks and one million level 3 face masks ahead of the production of 45 million face masks through local company Detmold.

Premier Steven Marshall said progress in containing COVID-19 so far and a substantial increase in the stockpile of PPE has enabled the restoration of non-urgent elective surgery.

“I want to thank those South Australians who have had their surgery postponed for their patience,” he said.

“Their surgery has been on hold, not only for their own safety, but also for the safety of the wider community in the midst of a pandemic.

“I assure everyone waiting for elective surgery that we will move as quickly as possible to reduce the backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic but it will take time.

“The restoration of elective surgery will deliver a welcome return to normality for the thousands of medical professionals who deliver these critical services.”

Officials expect public hospitals will be able to ramp back up to normal elective surgery levels by early to mid-next month, as long as it remains safe to do so, while restrictions placed on dentistry will also be lifted.

The waiting list for elective surgery has blown out to more than 20,000 people due to the halt, including more than 2400 listed as overdue.

Health and Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wade said the Liberals had inherited an overdue elective surgery list of 1583 when they came to office in March 2018.

“We have been investing $45 million to bring the overdue list down,” he said. “By March 2020, we had halved overdue elective surgery.

“COVID-19 has required a shut down of elective surgery which has tripled overdue elective surgeries.

“Over the past fortnight both the public and private sector have increased their surgery and procedure work schedules. We are now ready to move to restart our full elective surgery lists to ensure we can reduce the number of people currently waiting, just as we had before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Department of Health and Wellbeing executive director of Health Services Programs and Funding Helen Chalmers said Federal Government advice recommended each state and territory develop their own plan on how best to resume elective surgery.

“At each step of the way, we have taken advice from our integrated Surgical COVID-19 network, which was convened during the pandemic which is unique in Australia and which has been invaluable in delivering health outcomes for South Australians,” Ms Chalmers said.

“The strategy in the first phase is to prioritise those on the waiting lists who have been waiting longest in their urgency categories.”