Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak in the Western NSW Local Health District, non-urgent elective surgery will be temporarily postponed at Dubbo Base Hospital from Monday 16 August 2021.
All emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue unaffected.
This response is a necessary step to ensure we keep staff, patients and members of the public safe and ensure there is bed availability should the need arise.
Those waiting for non-urgent elective surgery who are impacted by the changes will be contacted and encouraged to reach out to their referring doctor should their condition in any way deteriorate, so they can be reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required.
This measure was previously implemented in March 2020 following a decision by National Cabinet, and will ensure the resources and capacity required for the COVID-19 response are maintained during the current outbreak.
The NSW Government is providing an additional $30 million to support private hospitals to undertake additional elective surgery on behalf of the NSW Health system to ensure that patients who have their non-urgent elective surgery postponed will be scheduled for surgery as soon as possible.
Non-urgent elective surgery has also been temporarily postponed at public hospitals in in Greater Sydney, excluding the Illawarra Shoalhaven and Central Coast Local Health Districts, from Monday, 2 August.
The NSW public health system is highly integrated and local health districts throughout the state work together on a daily basis to ensure the optimal delivery of healthcare services across the state.
There is currently sufficient ICU capacity for all patients who require intensive care, with more than 500 beds available throughout the system.
As part of its comprehensive planning for its pandemic response, NSW Health has the capacity to quadruple its current ICU capacity if required. There would also be ventilators available for each of these ICU beds.
The NSW Government has committed more than $4 billion to the NSW health system to manage the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.
