Hospitals stable but elective surgery still in limbo

The number of Victorians turning up to the state’s emergency departments has dropped in a week as Covid cases fall but there’s still no sign of a return for elective surgeries.

Presentations to the emergency department have dropped by 23 per cent in the past week and Covid-related hospitalisations have stabilised, but the state government has no plans yet to reinstate elective surgery.

The decline in people turning up to hospitals is believed to be linked to the government’s Code Brown declaration in all metropolitan public and some regional hospitals.

The alert, which came into effect last Wednesday in a bid to relieve the increased pressure caused by Covid, is expected to last for four to six weeks, but it remains unclear whether elective surgery will return before then.

Emergency department presentations are down from 4220 on January 18 to 3241 on Sunday.

There has also been a 35 per cent drop in the number of ambulance handovers – patients being taken by ambulance to emergency departments – from 1230 on January 18 to 806 this week.

Up to 3500 healthcare workers still remain unavailable for work on any given day due to Covid. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Deputy state controller Adam Horsburgh said there had been improvements in staff availability at hospitals, thanks to new furloughing arrangements, greater access to rapid antigen tests and people being out of their seven-day isolation stint.

“Having said all of that, the pressure on the health system remains intense,” Mr Horsburgh said.

Up to 3500 healthcare workers are unavailable for work each day due to Covid.

Covid-related hospitalisations appeared to have stabilised on Tuesday with 1057 people being treated across the state, including 119 in ICU and 45 on a ventilator.

Despite that, Mr Horsburgh said the besieged healthcare system wasn’t ready to resume non-urgent surgery.

“In the background we are preparing work to consider how and when we can restore elective surgery,” he said.

“We are very conscious of the impact that the deferral of elective surgery has on everyone on a waiting list but we don’t believe, at this point, that the system is in a position to restart elective surgery.”

Deputy State Controller Adam Horsburgh says the pressure on the healthcare system remains immense. Picture: David Geraghty

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy demanded the government immediately resume all surgery in Victorian hospitals.

Mr Guy said it was not acceptable that “tens of thousands” of Victorians were being forced to wait for treatment on serious conditions, and argued the state government should have prepared the system before the pandemic.

“In many cases these are not optional or elective. This is not a surgery that people are choosing to have. They might not be life threatening … but they are needed. People aren’t doing this for fun,” he said.

“It is not a matter of the government saying, ‘we’ll get around to it when we think we can get around to it’. This is a priority. There is nothing more important than Victorians’ health.”

It has been two years since the first Australian case of Covid-19 was detected in Victoria. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Deputy Premier James Merlino last week predicted that hospitalisations would peak in coming weeks with more than 2500 Covid patients and up to 100 new admissions each day.

Asked on Tuesday whether the situation was as bad as first predicted, Health Minister Martin Foley said the time frame was still relevant, and the health network continued to operate under “extraordinarily trying circumstances”.

There were no immediate plans to wind back mask rules or work from home edicts.