Medical Colleges call for urgent freeze to all non-critical elective surgery
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) have called for a stop to all elective surgery, except urgent cases, as we prepare to meet the looming public health emergency which threatens to overwhelm our hospital system.
RACS President Dr Tony Sparnon stated that continuing non-emergency elective surgery is unnecessarily putting patients and staff at risk of infection with the coronavirus and reiterated that this is an issue for both public and private hospitals.
We have asked all surgical groups to consult and identify critical procedures that cannot be postponed. We have also asked our state and territory chairs to liaise with their respective health departments. Please contact them if you have any suggestions that could help.
Read the joint statement from the Colleges.
RACS New Zealand annual scientific meeting cancelled
We are cancelling the Surgery 2020: Reflecting on Practice conference scheduled for 20 and 21 August in Queenstown, New Zealand.
A great deal of hard work had already occurred to make this year’s annual meeting a successful one with a range of inspiring and insightful speakers and sessions. The Organising Committee is disappointed that this decision is necessary but know that this is the appropriate call to make.
At this stage we don’t know whether any of the planned presentations might be moved to next year’s conference is not yet known. We will keep you advised as decisions are made.
The cancellation of the meeting means that we will not be calling for abstracts for the Louis Barnett Prize.
If you have any queries about the cancellation of Surgery 2020, please contact the New Zealand Manager, Justine Peterson via email or by phone on +64 27 279 7455.
General resources
In addition to the COVID-19 information hub we have set-up on our website, we have the following resources that have been forwarded by Fellows:
- LitCovid is a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the 2019 novel Coronavirus. It is the most comprehensive resource on the subject, providing a central access to 1087 (and growing) research articles in PubMed. The articles are updated daily and are further categorised by different research topics and geographic locations for improved access.
- Healthdirect Australia has developed a COVID-19 Symptom Checker, an online self-guided tool to help people find out if they need to seek medical help.
Useful links