Jane Griffiths – 3AW Mornings
CEO, Day Hospitals Australia
How non-urgent elective surgery could resume without stretching hospitals further.
Victoria’s 77 day hospitals are underutilised and could carry out category 2B and 3 surgeries to ensure Victorians get their procedures done sooner, according to the CEO of Day Hospitals Australia.
Non-urgent surgeries are currently paused in Victoria, due to rising pressure on the state’s hospitals due to COVID-19 cases.
Only category 1 and 2A surgeries are currently proceeding.
But CEO of Day Hospitals Australia, Jane Griffiths, says the state’s day hospitals, which are not being used for COVID patients, have capacity and should be allowed to offer less urgent surgeries.
“We’re under the same restrictions as the overnight COVID hospitals, so at the moment only category 1 and category 2A, which are urgent emergency type procedures, can be performed in our day hospitals,” she told Neil Michell.
“Why aren’t these private category 2B and 3 cases being done in the day hospital sector?
“They could be done there and there are 77 day hospitals in Victoria.
“The Victorian government needs to really seriously look at the implications of this because if the private sector collapses, the public sector is already under extreme pressure, and it won’t be able to cope.”