Public hospitals in Sydney still unable to perform non-urgent elective surgery requiring overnight stay

From Monday February 7, non-urgent elective surgery requiring an overnight stay will return to 75 per cent capacity in private hospitals and at public hospitals in regional and rural NSW where they are able to do so.

Non-urgent elective surgery requiring an overnight stay was suspended from January 10 to ensure there was sufficient staffing and hospital bed capacity to meet the extra demands caused by the Omicron wave of COVID-19.

Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Tuesday, during this "challenging period", all emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery, as well as the majority of non-urgent elective day surgery, had continued.

"The reintroduction of [overnight] non-urgent elective surgery will be done in a phased manner to balance the ongoing potential need for extra capacity in our hospitals and the need for people in NSW to access their elective surgeries as quickly as possible," he said.

"We recognise the effect these necessary restrictions have had on the lives of people requiring non-urgent elective surgery and I want to assure them we will be doing everything possible to return to full capacity in all of our hospitals as soon as possible."

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said private hospitals would retain some capacity to assist public hospitals by taking patients if necessary, and would also continue to take public patients for non-urgent elective surgery to ensure equity of access.

"I want to thank the private hospitals in NSW who have supported our public hospitals and the NSW community during this challenging period and will continue to do so after non-elective surgery resumes next week," Mr Hazzard said.