Staff from many private hospitals across Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, as well as some regional locations, are being deployed to assist the NSW Government's response to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Private hospital staff will help support the large-scale vaccination effort currently underway and support workforce demands in the NSW public health system.
As a result, non-urgent elective surgery is being temporarily postponed at some private hospitals from Monday, 23 August.
This decision has the full support of the Commonwealth Government through the Commonwealth Department of Health which has agreed the temporary suspension of non-urgent elective surgery to free up staff to support the pandemic response.
All emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue to be performed during this challenging period. People who require emergency surgery will still have access to it.
NSW Health acknowledges the critical importance of private hospitals in delivering timely and high-quality care for our communities and we thank them for their ongoing partnership in responding to the current pandemic.
These private hospitals have been conducting additional elective surgery on behalf of the public health system for patients who had their non-urgent elective surgery postponed in 2020, following a National Cabinet decision.
Ensuring adequate system capacity as well as patient, staff and public safety will be key factors in the delivery of healthcare services during this time.
Patients due to receive non-urgent elective surgery impacted by these changes are being contacted and encouraged to seek medical attention should they experience a change in their condition so they can be reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required.
In 2020-21 the NSW Government provided an extra $458.5 million to fast-track elective surgeries which were delayed as a result of the Federal Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, and a further $80 million has been provided as part of the 2021-22 NSW Budget.
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.
The private hospitals are: