Elective surgery wait times blow out after Victoria’s second coronavirus wave

Victoria’s healthcare system is staring down the barrel of another crisis with huge numbers of people on wait lists for elective surgeries.

Victoria’s second coronavirus wave has caused wait times for elective surgery to blow out, with thousands more on wait lists compared with the same time last year.

Latest quarterly Victorian Agency for Health Information (VAHI) data shows 66,242 Victorians are waiting for operations surgery as of September 2020 compared with 44,860 at the same time last year.

Most category 2 and all of category 3 elective surgery was cancelled during the July to September quarter, whereby the data showed Victorians waiting for category 3 elective surgery increased 53 per cent compared with this time last year, with almost 36,000 people waiting.

The median wait time for category 3 elective surgery has more than doubled to 138 days, while more than 10 per cent of patients are now waiting longer than clinically recommended for treatment.

Typical surgeries include orthopaedic procedures such as hip and knee replacements.

Category 3 surgery patients are considered non-life threatening and put on a wait list to have treatment within at least 12 months.

There were 66,242 Victorians waiting for operations surgery as of September 2020 compared with 44,860 the same time last year. Picture: Wayne Taylor/NCA NewsWire

The data also shows 10 per cent of Victorians seeking a first specialist appointment are waiting for 407 days – 146 days longer than this time last year.

As of September 2020, there were also 28,331 Victorians waiting for category 2 elective surgery – semi-urgent treatment – compared with 19,398 in September last year.

In urgent cases – category 1 elective surgery – there were 2016 Victorians waiting during the last quarter compared with 2042 in September last year.

The VAHI also revealed long waits for mental health patients seeking treatment in an emergency department.

One in two patients who sought mental health treatment in an emergency department waited longer than eight hours for admission during the last quarter.

Minister Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said the state’s healthcare system had been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know that they’ve been very heavily, heavily focused on COVID response, which is about life and death,” she told reporters on Thursday.

“I’m very confident that those same teams of professionals will work their way through – in a way that is manageable whilst maintaining their focus on COVID – in a way that optimises outcomes in terms of getting through elective surgery.”