Should I continue with elective surgery?

by | Coronavirus - COVID-19, Elective Surgery

Transcript

I actually think people should continue with elective surgery. It’s been said, well, elective surgery’s going to clog up the system, and if we get an epidemic or pandemic of COVID-19, it’s going to clog up the hospitals.

The reality is the vast majority of elective surgery in Australia, people don’t take up ICU beds, and they’re either in for the day or they’re in overnight. And you can turn off the tap on elective surgery really quickly, so if you decide there’s a problem going, and you want to relieve beds, you just stop doing elective surgery that week. And 2 days later, all of the beds are freed up.

And for those people who are doing semi-elective surgeries, say for cancer surgery or things like that, you’re going to have to do it anyway.

So, if you need elective surgery, there’s beds available, and it’s not going to take up an ICU bed, then in fact, my view is, you should go ahead. But I’m not your surgeon. You need to talk it over with them.