Elective surgery restart a ‘top priority’ for State Government

Elective surgeries for public patients could be back on the table soon, with the State Government and local hospital management working to determine the “best pathway forward”.

PLANS are well advanced for a “gradual and staged” resumption of elective surgery for public patients, Health Minister Sarah Courtney says.

The coronavirus pandemic has halted elective surgery around the state.

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Ms Courtney said her department was working with clinicians to go through the waiting list as soon as possible.

That restart would depend on hospital capacity and would be prioritised according to need, she said.

Health Minister Sarah Courtney at the daily COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“Currently we are working through our surgery plans, as well as our capacity, with our local hospital management as well as our senior clinicians, to determine the best pathway forward,” Ms Courtney said.

“This will be a gradual and progressive restart to our surgical program.

“The final decisions on the category and types of patients to be operated on will remain at the discretion of our medical professionals.

“As a government, we have made elective surgery a top priority of ours, so making sure that we can get that care for Tasmanians and those women who are on IVF treatments is very pleasing.

“This will be gradual, however. We are still in a pandemic, we still need to make sure that we have capacity within our hospitals, we need to ensure that we’ve got the North West Regional Hospital and North West Private Hospital back online and seeing patients.”

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State governments have long struggled to keep elective surgery waiting lists under control in Tasmania.

The most recent update showed there were 11,500 people on the waiting list in December last year, with a median waiting time of 42 days.

Median waits for the least urgent cases extended to nearly a year.

The North West Regional Hospital. Picture: PATRICK GEE

The coronavirus pandemic has played havoc with government attempts to keep the list from ballooning out.

Ms Courtney said she was hopeful people who were awaiting surgery would soon start to be notified of their new arrangements.

“I’d like to assure people that are on our elective surgery waiting list that we’re going to work through this as quickly as possible.”