Private and public hospitals to resume elective surgery bookings

Private hospitals have resumed taking bookings for elective surgeries with public hospitals to start next week.

A temporary pause was put on some category 2 and 3 bookings during WA's Omicron outbreak in March, but this has now been lifted.

The decision was made due to low COVID-19 numbers in the community and its impact on the hospital system.

From today, May 2, private health service providers can scale up their elective surgery bookings activity, subject to staffing and capacity within their hospitals.

Public hospitals will follow suit on Monday, May 9.

Patients who have had their surgery deferred will be contacted by their treating hospital once a booking slot is available.

"During this pandemic, the health system has taken an agile and planned approach to elective surgery," Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.

"The temporary pause on bookings for non-urgent Category 2 and 3 elective surgery was necessary to ensure we had capacity in our system to respond to an expected increase in COVID-19 patients.

"I'd once again like to thank patients and their families for their understanding as we navigated through a very high caseload period."