All public hospitals in Victoria have been directed not to take new elective surgery bookings until further notice.
It comes as COVID-19 case numbers continue to grow in regional Victoria, as does the likelihood of hospitals needing to manage additional patients.
It is also particularly necessary in case of large-scale aged care outbreaks, where the best option may be to transfer patients into hospitals.
ERH chief executive Nick Bush said the hospital would continue with elective surgeries that were already booked in for the next four weeks.
“About 20 patients will not be able to have their elective theatre, from probably up until about four weeks away,” he said.
“We’ll continue to do the emergency and urgent cases and staff will be redeployed across the health service to cover in case we have an outbreak of COVID-19,” he said.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos assured regional Victorians emergency care would still be provided.
“We know this will mean an anxious time for many Victorians whose surgery is delayed, but we’ll resume our elective surgery blitz as soon as it’s safe to do so, to catch up any backlog as quickly as possible.”
This announcement follows on from the recent decision to pause all category three and non-urgent category two elective surgery in metropolitan Melbourne and reduce elective surgery lists across public and private hospitals.
ERH is also continuing with COVID-19 testing.
Since the clinic opened on March 12 until August 1, ERH tested 3338 people, and is currently averaging 49 tests a day.
Mr Bush reminded residents ERH’s clinic was for symptomatic testing only.
“As part of the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines we’re only testing people who have symptoms that could be COVID-19,” he said.
“We’re not doing asymptomatic testing, which is when people aren’t well and it might be asked for by an employer or a business.
“If all public hospitals did asymptomatic testing it would really slow down the results of the tests that are done on the symptomatic people.”
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