All good to go under the knife

LIKE many other facets of the health industry, elective surgery is heading back down the road towards full capacity.

Although urgent procedures were necessary throughout the pandemic, in line with the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines, Ballarat’s two main hospitals have also resumed non-urgent elective surgeries.

Under restrictions, St John of God Ballarat Hospital is currently running at 85 per cent surgical capacity with no restrictions on the type of surgery.

Similarly, Ballarat Health Services executive director of acute operations Ben Kelly said they are also able to increase their capacity for elective surgeries which are of a non-urgent nature.

“Under directive from DHHS, we had previously limited surgery capacity to category one and high urgency category two surgeries, but this is no longer the case,” he said.

“Surgeries are categorised based on clinical assessment of urgency for each patient, and patients may change category depending on changes to their condition.

“Although we have previously limited elective surgery as a result of COVID-19 planning and preparation, Ballarat Health Services has undertaken emergency surgery throughout the pandemic.”

Under the guise of the current roadmap to COVID-normal, all hospitals in Victoria will move to 100 per cent elective surgery activity when the state enters the last step.

“While our current capacity is across all categories of elective surgery, Ballarat Health Services continues to prioritise surgery based on clinical assessment of urgency,” Mr Kelly said.

“We continue to work with St John of God and other providers to ensure health care services are appropriately delivered across the region in response to the pandemic.”