WESTERN District Health Service (WDHS) surgeons and its theatre team have worked hard in recent weeks to ensure delayed appointments were rescheduled as quickly as possible.

“We resumed 100 per cent theatre activity at Hamilton Base Hospital on February 21, and all local patients have since been rescheduled for elective surgery,” WDHS director of nursing, Lorraine Hedley said.

However, the Victorian opposition said last week that the health crisis has deepened and the Health minister has refused to deny that the current surgery waiting list across the state has hit 100,000 while Victorians continue to suffer.

It said, in contrast, the elective surgery wait list in New South Wales has grown just two per cent during the same period.

Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive Tom Symondson said that exactly how Victorian hospitals will catch up on this unprecedented waiting list in a new ‘COVID normal’ environment remains unclear - and unfortunately, it’s likely to take years, not months.

Shadow Health minister Georgie Crozier said the government’s mismanagement of the health system has denied Victorians the surgery they desperately need.

“The Minister for Health doesn’t want to reveal the actual number of Victorians on the elective surgery waitlist as that number is so shocking,” she said.

“Victoria’s waitlist was at record levels prior to the pandemic and is growing by more than a thousand a week - that was before the implementation of a statewide Code Brown which further suspended vital surgery.”

Emergency Services shadow minister Brad Battin said, “this is simply not good enough” and that the waiting list crisis comes at the same time the government has admitted it will take close to two years to see any improvement in the triple zero crisis that’s costing Victorians their lives.

“The Andrews Government needs to do more now to make sure triple zero calls are answered,” he said.

 “A cobbled-together rescue attempt that the government admits will take months to make any difference is not a real solution.

 “The Premier can pretend this crisis was caused by COVID but the reality is it was caused by Labor’s mismanagement of the health system for years leading up to the pandemic.”

All elective surgery across public and private hospitals resumed in February as the Omicron began to subside and stabilise.

Health minister Martin Foley said in February, he signed off on a plan that balances the health system response and workforce pressures with ensuring Victorians can access important surgery they’ve been waiting for.

“We understand that this has been a difficult time for many people waiting for surgery and we thank them for their patience while we managed the peak of the Omicron variant,” he said.

“Our entire healthcare workforce has done an incredible job getting us through the Omicron wave - our approach needs to be cautious and steady to ensure they’re able to cope without being further affected by fatigue and furloughs.”