Early cancer intervention saves lives and the ban on electives surgeries in Victoria is going to cause a “massive crisis” once it’s all over, says surgeon Dr Nicole Yap.

It comes as elective surgery wait lists have tripled in the past year due to a backlog caused by COVID restrictions.

Victoria imposed a temporary ban on elective surgeries on January 6 to help the health system cope with COVID hospitalisations.

“The repercussions of this will not only cost the public dollar but it will mean that the patients will need to have further treatment … which they not have necessarily required and their prognosis is also decreased,” Dr Yap told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“It’s a bit of a shambles and I’m only talking from my point of view.”

This article was republished from Sky News. Read the original here.