Mala McAlpin Some good news for doctors and elective surgery patients.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has just announced in a press conference today that elective surgery restrictions will gradually start to be eased after this weekend.
National Cabinet, which includes Mr Morrison, premiers and chief ministers, has decided Australia is in a position to begin lifting certain restrictions around elective surgery, which were originally introduced last month in order to free up beds amid fears the coronavirus would overwhelm the hospital system.
IVF, joint replacement, cataracts, breast reconstruction and dental procedures are among those that will be able to take place following the Anzac Day long weekend.
The elective surgeries that will begin again are all category two procedures, and some of those classified in category three, including colonoscopies, endoscopies, and post-cancer treatments. Post-cancer breast augmentation was included in the ‘allowed’ list during Mr Morrison’s announcement today.
“This will not mean an immediate return to normal with elective surgery, but a gradual restart, subject of course to capacity and other constraints that may exist in each jurisdiction,” Mr Morrison said. “We estimate that this will lead to a reopening of around 25 per cent of activity in elective surgery in our private and public hospitals.”
Officials emphasise that this is the first step of many that we are already undertaking on the way back to normalcy, and that more would soon be following. These changes currently, however, do not appear to extend to elective cosmetic surgery or relate to non-surgical aesthetic procedures either.
Rules regarding elective surgery will be reviewed once again on May 11. We speculate that we may be seeing more lifts and re-openings in the near future – perhaps sooner than we thought.
In other good news, registrations for the Job Keeper stimulus have officially opened this week, read our Q&A with financial experts here to see if you are eligible.
Let us know if the news of the elective surgery ban being lifted has encouraged you to prepare for re-opening your business soon, e-mail us on editorial@3.106.143.225 and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and online story alerts for any updates!
