ANZCA joins medical colleges for COVID-19 surgery statement
26 August 2021
ANZCA and six other Australian and New Zealand medical colleges support postponing elective surgery during COVID-19 infection surges.
ANZCA President Dr Vanessa Beavis was interviewed by stuff.co.nz about the joint statement.
"Various health authorities are trying hard to do the right thing and are getting a lot of pushback from private interests. There’s a lot of pressure to do surgery,” she said.
“We wanted to make the point that, at this particular point in time, really planned surgery – unless it's going to severely affect a patient in the next 30 days – should be postponed.”
The colleges also want certainty for patients on when electives might be able to resume, she said.
“We better have a solid and good plan for restarting, because there's going to be a big catch up.”
The full statement is here.