WA Premier Mark McGowan reveals reason for postponing elective surgeries

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has revealed changes to restrictions in his state.

Elective surgeries will be postponed in Western Australia later this month to ensure the health system is not overrun when the Omicron strain of Covid-19 peaks, but not everyone is happy with the change.

Premier Mark McGowan said it was an “operational decision” to manage the growth in infections.

“As cases grow, hospital systems around Australia unwind elective surgeries so you can cope with people going to hospital,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“Our vaccination rate and our increasing third dose will significantly reduce the heath impacts on the West Australian public, but people will still get sick, and so we need to provide capacity in the hospitals for those people.

“Winding back some elective surgery — not all — is an important part of making sure our health system has the capacity to deal with people as the case numbers grow.

“It’s what every state in Australia has done, I expect every hospital system around the world has done.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan says the move will help the health system cope with Omicron. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

However, Mr McGowan could not give an indication about the influx of cases the government expected.

“What we’re doing is trying to prepare, so what we didn’t want to do was book people in and then cancel them,” he said.

“What we do is make beds available. If Covid cases aren’t there, well then we can book people urgently to go in and get elective surgery done.”

Australian Medical Association WA president Mark Duncan-Smith backed the decision, saying it was a sensible approach.

“This avoids the problem of patients being booked and then being cancelled last minute,” he told reporters.

“The director-general has given reassurances that if elective surgery is able to be done at the time, then more surgery will be booked.

“But again, this is a pragmatic approach to just avoid disappointing patients.

“Certainly, we call on the government and the health department to have an active plan once we pass the peak of Omicron to get elective surgery up and running again as soon as possible, and also for extra funding to clear the backlog.”

AMA WA president Mark Duncan-Smith says postponing elective surgeries as Omicron peaks is sensible. Picture: Marie Nirme/The Australian

Dr Duncan-Smith said he expected to see hundreds of new cases of Omicron in the community by the end of this month and thousands per day in March.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be anywhere near those number of admissions to hospital, but obviously, the more number of cases there are, the more admissions there will be to hospital,” he said.

“The Omicron variant is much more infectious — three times more infectious than Delta — but it is less severe in its nature and hospitalisation rate.

“We will have several months of high numbers and the exact height of those numbers, or the peak, is going to depend on what the government does with restrictions and mitigation of that peak.”

The AMA has been calling for a “conservative” approach that is similar to South Australia’s system, including density limits, working from home and dancing only at weddings.

But opposition spokeswoman Libby Mettam said pre-emptively cutting elective surgery bookings showed the system was already at capacity.

“The impact of delaying elective surgeries should also not be played down. These patients are often in pain, with their lives and livelihoods affected while they wait for what can be life-changing surgery,” Ms Mettam said.

People are urged to get vaccinated. Picture: Tony McDonough/NCA NewsWire

“Just because it is elective, does not mean it isn’t essential and what this means is that patients are paying the price for the government’s inability to plan for the past two years.

“We know that delaying surgeries can mean that those waiting may have to present to emergency in the interim if their conditions deteriorate and that has a flow-on impact to our already stretched hospital systems.”

It comes as WA recorded 13 new local cases and 52 travel-related infections overnight.

Of the new local cases, 10 are linked to close contacts and the other three remain a mystery. They are all in quarantine now.

“Some of the new local cases were infectious in the community,” WA Health warned.

“Contact tracers are working to determine potential public exposure sites.”

It brings the total number of active cases to 306, including 11 in hotel quarantine, 294 in self-quarantine and one in hospital but not in intensive care.

Originally published as WA Premier Mark McGowan reveals reason for postponing elective surgeries