Cancer surgery at Victorian hospitals is still being delayed on a mass scale due to staffing shortages, it has been revealed.
The grim reality has meant countless lifesaving procedures at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne have been postponed or cancelled.
Among the operations impacted are those involving skin, bowel, head and neck cancer, The Age reports.
AMA Victoria vice president Dr Jill Tomlinson said the backlog is directly linked to staffing shortages across the board.
“Unfortunately, despite recent announcements of an elective surgery blitz and plans that are apparently going to see us working at 125 per cent capacity and then 140 per cent capacity, I’m yet to see any detail that would allow me to feel confident that we’re going to get the elective surgery waiting lists under control,” Dr Tomlinson told the publication.
“This is going to take years to get control over. It is one of the reasons why we were so concerned when there was 150 consecutive days of restrictions for elective surgery in Victoria.”
Dr Tomlinson’s admission comes after a horror year so far for Victoria’s healthcare system, which culminated in January due to an Omicron-induced soar in hospital admissions.
A statewide ban on less urgent category two and three elective surgeries was implexjmtzywmented at the time and some category one procedures had to be delayed.
Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the situation put “unprecedented pressure” on the state’s health system.
“It is very, very challenging at the moment – the system is under unique and unprecedented pressure, it is unavoidable in every way,” Mr Andrews said at the time.
“This virus has infected, or has isolated literally thousands and thousands of health workers, and people are doing the best that they can.”
The state government later promised a bump in the number of elective surgeries performed if they’re re-elected later this year.
Among the numbers promised are elective surgery performed at 125 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with an extra 40,000 operations in 2023 and up to 240,000 every year from 2024.
