Industry bodies have reacted positively to the State Government’s new $1.5 billion “catch-up plan” for elective surgery.
The plan includes a clinically led and dedicated surgery recovery taskforce, with the plan targeting a 125 per cent increase in pre-Covid surgery levels. $375 million will be invested in the public system for same-day surgeries, after-hour care and improvements to surgery theatres.
Wait times for elective surgeries blew out during 2021 after Covid-19 restrictions cancelled elective surgeries because of the high amount of stress on the hospital system.
Secretary of the Victorian branch of the Australian Nursing Federation Lisa Fitzpatrick said once the plan is implemented, it will yield more sophisticated and accurate data collection, provide unprecedented coordination by having designated elective surgery hubs and includes workforce expansion and specialisation that is already underway.
‘Any who spout blame today are simply proving they don’t understand the health system or the workforce, including what our members have been through and are still experiencing as we move into the third year of the pandemic,” she said.
‘We had to pause category two and three surgeries and day procedures for significant periods of time while the health system carried the burden of thousands of Covid patients, including caring for those at home, with fewer staff as thousands were furloughed due to having the virus or being a close contact.”
The Victorian Healthcare Association CEO Tom Symondson said the State Government has implemented a realistic and long-term plan for tackling the elective surgery waitlist.
“In an election year, it would have been tempting to impose a one-off ‘elective surgery blitz’ that risked pushing our exhausted healthcare workers too hard with too many requests for overtime and longer shifts,” he said.
“This plan appears to avoid that with its multi-year strategy and more use of private hospitals. The creation of surgical hubs, a recommendation of the VHA, will allow hospitals to deliver more surgery more efficiently and with less chance of cancellation due to emergency surgical cases.”
The plan also includes a dedicated elective surgery hub at Frankston Private Hospital.
