CORONAVIRUS —
ELECTIVE SURGERY — REINSTATEMENT
416. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Minister for Health:
The SPEAKER: The member for
Wanneroo missed her spot, so we will have two Labor Party questions in a row.
Ms S.E. WINTON: It is worth
waiting for, Mr Speaker. Thank you and apologies.
I refer to the decision to suspend
all non-urgent elective surgery to support Western Australian hospitals to
prepare for the impact of COVID-19. Can the minister update the house on the
work now underway to resume all elective surgery and get those patients who
have been waiting for their elective surgery treated as soon as possible?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
I thank the member for the
question. I am very pleased to advise the house that as of yesterday, elective
surgery has been scaled back to 100 per cent of pre-COVID-19 surgery levels.
With elective surgery activity returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, this is a major
milestone and a testament to the great work of the Department of Health's
outstanding response to the disease. Less than three months after non-elective
surgery was suspended to enable our health system to prepare for the impact of
COVID-19, activity is back to 100 per cent of the historical average.
Approximately 3 550 Western Australians will have either a surgery or their
procedure undertaken this week.
Non-urgent
category 2 and all category 3 procedures were suspended from 23 March 2020 to
preserve personal protective equipment stocks and to ensure that beds would be
available for COVID-19 patients. Those were regrettable decisions, but they were
essential to ensure that we would be able to deal with the potentially large
numbers of people who would be presenting to our hospitals if the pandemic
became uncontrollable. The suspension of elective surgery, understandably, had
a significant impact on our elective surgery waitlist numbers and the time that
patients would normally have to wait for their surgery to be carried out. Western
Australia is not alone in having to deal with this issue; its impact has been
felt right across the nation. In fact, Western Australia's current
figures show that 13.5 per cent of procedures are over boundary. To put that
into context, 86.5 per cent of procedures are within boundary and conducted
within the clinically recommended time. But that is not good enough. At this
time last year, that number was just five per cent. The McGowan government puts
patients first, so we are actively planning to deal with the backlog of cases,
specifically the 13.5 per cent of patients who are over boundary. For members
to appreciate how challenging the situation is, to see when numbers were last
as challenging as this, we would have to go all the way back to 2010 under the
previous Liberal–National government when its over-boundary waitlist
was 14.3 per cent. Of course, we did not have a global pandemic at that time.
Nevertheless, the situation is not good enough. It is not as bad as it was
before, but it is not good enough. Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had
a median wait time of 37 days, which was the second best in the country, so our
health system was undertaking an outstanding effort. Thankfully, due to the
McGowan government's careful management of COVID-19 activity, we have
been able to ramp up elective surgery progressively since 28 April. This
milestone is a significant achievement for
WA's return to the new normal from COVID-19 and a testament to the
great work of WA Health service providers.
I have asked the department to
develop and coordinate a comprehensive plan to address the backlog of cases. I would
like to thank everyone who was affected by the cancellation of elective surgery
for their patience. I assure them that we will do everything we can to make
sure that we address this backlog and get elective surgery back to pre-COVID-19
levels as soon as possible. The McGowan government is committed to taking
action on behalf of those patients awaiting
elective surgery. We will get to them as soon as possible, and we thank them
for their patience while waiting for their surgery.