Daniel Andrews set for return to work amid elective surgery catch-up plan

Daniel Andrews is “raring” to return to work after his Covid isolation stint with the government unveiling a major health plan.

Daniel Andrews is “raring” to return to work after his Covid isolation stint as the state government unveiled a bold plan to fix a huge elective surgery backlog.

The Victorian Premier and his wife Catherine were both struck down with the virus last week.

Deputy Premier James Merlino confirmed his boss was keen to return to work on Monday after seven days out of action.

“He is raring to go,” he said.

The state government has unveiled a $1.5b plan to clear the state’s elective surgery waitlist backlog.

It’s estimated more than 80,000 Victorians are awaiting an elective surgery, up from 50,000 before the pandemic began.

MJames Merlino revealed his boss was returning to work. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

The ambitious plan promises elective surgery will be performed at 125 per cent of pre-2020 figures including an extra 40,000 in 2023, and up to 240,000 each year from 2024.

Health Minister Martin Foley said on Sunday wait lists would get worse before they got better.

“We know as a result of deferred care, as a result of the pandemic, that (those numbers) are going to increase,” he said.

“We’ve seen Covid disrupt care and cancel surgeries for people right across the country, while our hardworking nurses and doctors have put everything into caring for the most critical patients.”

The plan will see Frankston Private Hospital transformed into a public surgery centre with the capacity to support up to 9000 public patients per year once fully operational in 2023.

Two additional state-of-the-art theatres will be completed by early next year to boost services at the hospital.

However, no part of the backlog clearance will come cheap with $548 million alone being spent on efforts to treat public patients in private hospitals.

Peninsula Private Hospital will see some of the funding.

A further $475 million will support more activity in the public system, including same-day surgeries, increased twilight and after-hours work, and theatre improvements.

More than $80m will be used to train 1000 nurses and theatre and sterilisation technicians, in addition to the training of 400 perioperative nurses.

Rapid access hubs will exclusively perform specific surgeries such as hernia repairs, cataract surgeries and joint replacements and will be established across metropolitan public hospitals. This will increase the number of surgeries that can be performed each day and allow services to be streamlined.

The first eight hubs will be established in the next year at St Vincent’s on the Park, Broadmeadows Hospital, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Royal Women’s Hospital, Werribee Mercy Hospital, Sandringham Hospital, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and one in regional Victoria.

Victoria’s elective surgery wait lists have blown out by thousands since the pandemic started. Photograph by Arsineh Houspian

Mr Merlino said the plan would ensure the return of some normality to the health sector after two years of Covid-induced chaos.

“The pandemic has been really tough on everyone, but nothing matters more than the health of our loved ones,” he said.

“The Prime Minister said he would pay half the costs for Covid-related care in our hospitals, so our nurses and doctors had what they needed to look after people during the pandemic.

“Now, he’s cutting $1.5bn out of our health system when patients need it most.”