MLHD to welcome return of non-urgent surgery, 1,849 active COVID-19 cases

Murrumbidgee Local Health District Director of Medical Services Professor Len Bruce said while things could change at any given moment, they are hoping to tackle 75 per cent of non-urgent cases by the end of the month.

"We've been in discussion with our surgical facilities and we've been in discussion with our private providers and the focus will be to try and increase non-elective surgery by the end of February," Dr Bruce said.

Preliminary planning commenced yesterday with a focus on staff workloads.

"We don't want to create unrealistic expectations, what I can tell you is that if it's possible for me to do extra cases tomorrow, I will... if It is safe for me to do so," Dr Bruce said.

"We want to get all the patients done- I think 75 per cent is a good start and we will work as hard as we can to get that done."

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Despite a busy four to six weeks for MLHD staff, Dr Bruce is confident in their ability to tackle the return.

"During the three weeks between January 10 and January 27 we still managed to perform 64 per cent of our normal elective activity," he said.

"During those three weeks, we performed 382 elective surgical cases."

Dr Bruce said staff are being supported upon the return of non-surgical surgeries.

"Clearly the measures that we try to put in place is to allow staff to take leave if at all possible and we try to make sure that staff take leave if possible and that we support them," he said.

"Some staff have push back their leave when we requested them to support us, but once again it's more deferring than cancelling."

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