Victoria’s 80,000 surgery backlog could take years to address

Covid and its subsequent lockdowns has caused an intense elective surgery backlog, which could take years to address.

Victoria’s largest hospitals have revealed the magnitude of their dire elective surgery waitlists, as the state looks to overcome a backlog leading into the tens of thousands.

Public hospitals were this week given the green light to resume all elective surgeries, following two years of disruption and a halt on all non-emergency surgeries during the Omicron wave earlier this year.

There are now an estimated 80,000 people on the waiting list – almost double the number recorded pre-pandemic.

Appearing before the state’s pandemic oversight committee on Tuesday, the CEO’s of two major regional hospitals revealed their services were grappling with the issue.

At Goulburn Valley Health, in the state’s north, the elective surgery waitlist sits at 1018, while it’s pre-pandemic number was 632.

The issue could take years to fix in Victoria. Picture: NewsWire / David Crosling

At Ballarat Health, west of Melbourne, the waitlist ballooned from 1254 to 1450.

“The last few years have been challenging,” Ballarat Health CEO Dale Fraser said.

“But I would be relatively hopeful we’ll, throughout the course of this year, come back to our pre-pandemic numbers.”

There’s an estimated 80,000 strong backlog in the surgery waitlist.

The pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns in Victoria contributed to a lack of people visiting their GPs or being able to access vital health screenings, leading to more complex health outcomes.

It’s anticipated it could take the health system years to catch up on the backlog of people currently waiting for category one and two surgeries.

Both state and federal government will be expected to funnel money into the issue, to shorten the wait time and clear the backlog.

Medibank Group executive Milosh Milisavljevic said short-stay options, telehealth and prevention of further surgery would be key in addressing the issue.

“We’ve got one of the best health systems in the world in Australia and it’s worth bearing in mind that two out of three elective surgeries happen in the private health system, so making sure we can get people into private health is really important,” he said.

“We are developing models with our hospital partners for how to get patients in and out quicker, getting some care in the home, making more options available with telehealth, and guiding people through to the hospital to avoid complications and remissions.

“All of those would help people get elective surgery in a quicker time.”

Medibank’s Milosh Milisavljevic.

Premier Daniel Andrews last month hinted there would be an expensive catch-up for hospitals and said the public health system would likely have to resort to using private hospital capacity.

He said other options might include scheduling surgeries at nights or weekends, and asking workers to do overtime.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable that we might at some point around the national cabinet table have a bit of a discussion [with the Commonwealth] about how we might share some of those costs, with only one purpose – to get as many people their surgery as fast as possible,” he said.