Elective surgery held off to make room for flood of virus patients

Non-emergency surgery will begin to be pushed back at Queensland's hospitals from Monday to allow them to deal with a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases.

Elective surgeries are necessary operations that can be delayed and include hip replacements, having tonsils removed or a breast lump taken out.

Elective surgeries will have to be cancelled to deal with a large coronavirus outbreak. Credit: iStock

Public patients are placed on a waiting list and assigned one of three categories, with category 1 the most urgent.

Brisbane Times understands category 1 elective procedures will continue but category 2 and 3 surgeries - such as a coronary artery bypass, knee replacement or colposcopy - will be delayed at many hospitals.

Category 1 operations, such as mastectomy, amputation or neonatal surgery, should be performed within 30 days. Category 2 cases are meant to be performed within 90 days because of pain, dysfunction or disability, and category 3 patients should have surgery within a year.

Earlier this month elective surgeries and specialist outpatient appointments were brought forward to increase capacity ahead of any widespread outbreak, with doctors and nurses working overtime to get as many done as possible.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said individual hospitals would "guide their own decisions with their patients as to when, and if, they need to make these changes to elective surgery within their hospitals".

"Part of our planning work is to make sure we have capacity for more people needing urgent medical care, and more space to cater for isolation areas in hospitals. One way we can do this is by postponing non-urgent surgeries in some facilities."

The curtailing of surgeries is aimed at freeing up hospital beds for a rapid increase in COVID-19 patients.

Queensland Health predicts one in four people will be infected with the virus.

Infectious disease expert Nigel McMillan said the state was on the cusp of a widespread outbreak.

"We'll be at 5000 cases in a week’s time," Professor McMillan said on Thursday.

"You look at the growth so far, look at all the other places in the world, so it’s definitely going to get worse. It’s definitely going to grow."

Former Australian Medical Association state president Dr Christian Rowan, now the Member for Moggill, said it was important up-to-date information on the pandemic was funnelled to private and public hospitals.

"It is vitally important that capacity issues are examined and that opportunities to maximise clinical service provision and elective surgery cases are maximised," he said.

Patients can examine the National Elective Surgery Urgency Categorisation guideline to see how specific surgeries are categorised.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said the state's health system was well prepared to deal with coronavirus.

"We are in uncharted waters and are re-evaluating the situation daily to ensure we can continue to deliver the best health care to Queenslanders," the spokeswoman said.