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Goulburn Valley Health patients may wait even longer for elective surgery due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos warned of the potential delays in non-urgent care to create additional capacity in hospitals for coronavirus patients.
Although there were yet to be delays in surgery, Ms Mikakos said the government was planning for the virus to become a pandemic, which would see some extreme measures taken.
“Some of these measures are serious and go beyond anything we have experienced before in Victoria,” Ms Mikakos said.
“But when it comes to protecting those most at risk, we need to be ready.
“Our hospitals, paramedics and GPs are well-prepared to deal with COVID-19 – but we need to continue to do what is necessary to protect our state,” she said.
Goulburn Valley Health chief executive Matt Sharp said local surgeries were yet to be delayed.
“GV Health has a Pandemic Plan in place and is prepared to manage increased presentations related to COVID-19,” Mr Sharp said.
“However, GV Health will be liaising with other hospitals in the region regarding what capacity may exist for elective surgery to be undertaken at these health services.”
The potential wait comes as more than 600 people were already on GV Health elective surgery wait list last November.
The hospital experienced an 11 per cent surge in the number of patients waiting for elective surgery, with Mr Sharp telling The News at the time the hospital was operating in a challenging environment.
“We are operating in a challenging environment at present (November 2019), with a major factor related to recruiting surgeons and specialist staff to GV Health in order to treat patients,” Mr Sharp said.
“This challenge exists across regional Victoria and GV Health has developed a strategy to attract more doctors, nurses and allied health staff to our health service and we are working hard to implement it.”