Victorians waiting for elective surgeries will need to hold on longer, despite calls from surgeons to get them back into the operating theatre.
Following public pleas from surgeons to repeal the “blanket ban” on elective surgeries, calling it a “blunt tool” that was leaving people in long-term pain, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was more to consider than the request of a few.
“As soon as we can come out from the Code Brown (emergency declaration), as soon as we feel that it is safe and that we have significant capacity to resume services, that is exactly what we will do,” Mr Andrews said on Sunday.
“With the greatest respect to the surgical community, thxjmtzywey do one part of the work, they have got to be supported by teams of people.
“It is very rare that there would be a surgeon providing care to a patient. Even a day procedure, there are other members of the team and those other members are very high need at the moment.
“We are employing all sorts of people in different ways. But we have significant pressure in the system.”
Mr Andrews comments come after Australian Orthopaedic Association Victorian branch chairman Adrian Trivett lashed the elective surgery ban.
“There’s no doubt there’s capacity in the system to continue with some surgeries that are absolutely not life-threatening, but they’re causing disability and pain and they’re not being attended to,” Dr Trivett said.
In a similar vein, gynaecologist Simon Gordon said his endometriosis patients were suffering in “chronic and severe pain” while he sat at home.
“I’m at home mowing my lawns and turning the coffee machine on. Patients come to me and I say, ‘look, I’m not allowed to operate’,” Dr Gordon said.
“Everyone is in the same boat and none of us are doing anything particularly useful … We’re sitting around doing very little when we could be operating.”
Mr Andrews said there was “significant pressure” in the hospital system that required prioritisation.
“We want the sickest patients getting treated quickest, and that is exactly what the settings are all about,” Mr Andrews said.
“They are under constant review, and if we all go out and get our third dose, if we get our kids vaccinated, if we isolate when we are required to, we will have those services resume as fast as we possibly can.”
Victoria recorded 13,091 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths on Sunday, with the chief health officer revealing the state’s Omicron peak has “very likely” passed.
There are 1002 infected people in hospital with 120 in intensive care and 44 on ventilators.
The state has seen yet another drop in cases after 16,016 were recorded on Saturday, following 18,167 on Friday.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton was quick to respond after the numbers were published on Sunday, saying the state’s booster blitz was “going great guns”.
“Peak in cases very likely behind us,” he wrote.
“ICU cases and deaths haven’t peaked, but will hopefully stabilise soon.”
More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated, while there are a mammoth 191, 058 active cases.
A total of 32, 435 PCR tests were taken on Saturday and 27,051 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
More than 31 per cent of Victoria’s population above the age of 18 have received their booster vaccination.
“Booster blitz going great guns,” Professor Sutton said.
Professor Sutton’s comments echoed those of Covid commander Jeroen Weimar on Saturday, who said infections “don’t seem to be going up”.
“The numbers are high, these are high numbers by any standard particularly given the cadence we had last year and the year before,” he said.
“If I look at the NSW numbers they’re on a similar kind of trajectory. We’re in a summer period and there’s a lot of people on holiday, a lot of people not going out and about as much as they otherwise might. Let’s see what happens post-Australia Day.”
Mr Weimar said the state was in a different position compared to the initial peak earlier in January.
