Swan Hill managing elective surgery ‘really well’

REGIONAL city public hospitals have ramped up elective surgery this week, but it’s been business as usual in Swan Hill.
Swan Hill District Health (SHDH) executive director of medical services Rex Prabhu said elective surgery had been operating at 100 per cent, and extra, to keep up with overhanging demand after closures during the coronavirus pandemic.
“There was only a week in the second wave that we had to stop because we had to organise testing and vaccinations concurrently,” Dr Prabhu said.
“After that we have been going 100 per cent in our capacity to do elective surgery.
“We don’t have an extensive waiting list – we are managing this really well.”
The Victorian Government announced earlier this week that public hospitals in Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton and the Latrobe Valley could resume up to 50 per cent of normal elective surgery.
Private hospitals and day procedure centres operating up to 50 per cent of elective surgery capacity were able to move up to 75 per cent, so long as they continued to first assist with the COVID-19 response.
“Rural and regional health services not operating major COVID streaming sites have generally continued all categories of elective surgery, only postponing non-urgent surgery in response to local outbreaks,” Health Minister Martin Foley said.
“At an operational level, health services will still have the option to reduce non-urgent surgery, if deemed necessary due to challenges associated with the pandemic.”
Dr Prabhu said SHDH was in discussions with Kerang District Health about offering elective surgery at the smaller health service.
“It’s part of a government push for bigger places to offload some of this low-risk surgery to smaller services, so we are already having conversations with Kerang around availability once we get (the go-ahead) from Bendigo.
“We are helping out because we have got a strong team of surgeons, a strong team of anaesthetists and now built up a strong team in gynaecology, so a lot of general elective surgery is coming our way.
“The teams work hard and are accommodative to patients requiring surgery.”
Dr Prabhu said there would be only one or two patients’ operations “unavoidably” delayed because of availability of surgeons from Melbourne and ensuring the patients were fit for surgery.
“There is no extensive waiting list, probably for some four to five weeks’ delay, but just a small cohort of patients,” he said.
“We are working well within our operating capacity and actually trying to make sure that everyone gets surgery in time.”
Mr Foley said Victoria’s efforts in getting vaccinated meant the number of patients requiring hospitalisation had stabilised, with most people safely managing their illness at home.
“Reducing hospitalisations has given us the flexibility to further expand elective surgery and help ease the burden on Victorians waiting for procedures,” he said.