The health and wellbeing of Tasmanians is our number one priority as we face the challenges presented to us by the coronavirus pandemic.
We know that the national decision made last month to cease most elective surgery and IVF procedures has been extremely difficult for many Tasmanians.
The National Cabinet, acting on the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, has today made the decision to resume some procedures from next week.
We will now work through our surgery plans and capacity with local hospital management and senior clinicians, as well as the private sector.
We are not yet in the position to return to normal elective surgery levels, so this will be a gradual, progressive restart to our surgical program.
There will be close consideration of current constraints in our health system, for example with the North West outbreak and the extra pressure from that outbreak placed on the LGH, and the final decisions on the category and types of patients to be operated on will remain at the discretion of our medical professionals.
We thank our hardworking health workers for their continued work in supporting and caring for Tasmanians.