CENTRAL Gippsland Health is already planning the ramping up elective surgery in the wake of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Chief executive Frank Evans said additional theatre sessions would booked by next week.
“We are very pleased with the reduced restrictions as this will have a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of the community and our staff,” Dr Evans said.
“With regard to elective surgery, we are already working on increasing the amount we provide to achieve the new 85 per cent cap.”
The state government’s plan will increase regional Victoria’s usual elective surgery activity by 75 per cent, and by 85 per cent from September 28.
Hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne will begin to ramp up to 75 per cent of usual activity from September 28, when they enter the second step of the ‘roadmap’ plan out of restrictions, and 85 per cent of usual activity when they move to the third step.
All hospitals will move to 100 per cent of usual activity when the state moves to the last step to ‘COVID normal,’ planned for November 23.
This plan will allow for about 18,750 additional elective surgeries across private and public hospitals in October, and an extra 10,500 surgeries in November.
The state government says the elective surgery blitz will be reinstated as soon as possible, to catch up on the backlog of patients.
Specialist clinic consultations will increase in line with elective surgery activity and telehealth will continue to be used where possible.
From September 28, dental and allied health services in metropolitan Melbourne will be able to resume non-urgent procedures such as routine examinations, temporary fillings, simple extractions, preventive procedures like fluoride varnish and hand scaling, and dentures and orthodontic treatments.
AHPRA-registered allied health professionals will be able to see patients for face-to-face services for a broader range of treatments than just preventing hospital admission, such as for pain management or to prevent a deterioration in functional independence.
During the third step, most dental and allied health services will be able to recommence with a COVIDSafe plan, with some limitations still in place on group therapy for allied health.
