The Victorian Nationals have called for a lift on the ban, arguing that patients are missing out on critical care, after NSW premier Dominic Perrotet announced the state will return the elective procedures from Monday February 7.

The statewide code brown healthcare alert was brought in on January 19th in order to more effectively manage surging caseloads from the Omicron variant.

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The code brown enacted a number of emergency healthcare responses, including the pausing of elective surgeries.

Leader of the Victorian Nationals Peter Walsh is supporting calls from the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to immediately restart surgeries at private hospitals.

"Victoria's COVID hospitalisations continue to fall, yet Labor is cruelly denying local people a chance to relieve chronic suffering," Mr Walsh said.

"Victorians are suffering in pain while hospital and mental health wait lists get longer. Elective surgeries must immediately restart in Bendigo.

AMA spokesperson Dr Jerome Muir Wilson said referring to the surgeries as an elective downplayed the severity of significant conditions.

"Politicians or bureaucrats call it elective surgery, but if you've got someone waiting for a knee replacement and they can't work then we see it as essential surgery," he said.

"People think elective surgery is more like cosmetic stuff, but we see it as essential health that impacts on day to day lives."

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He said delaying some surgeries could have long-term impacts on patients and place a further strain on health services.

"I saw a child before Christmas who had two hearing tests because he had blocked hearing and he needed grommets which is a simple day procedure," he said.

"On that waitlist, the outpatient wait time is a couple of years, so his speech isn't developing and he's going to need speech therapy to catch up with his learning needs.

"It's a really hard thing to see when it takes something so simple to fix it, but they just haven't got the capacity to do it."

However, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) says the statewide elective surgery pause is a protective measure that ensures additional patients do not unexpectedly require intensive care following an operation.

They also said it also provides a surge workforce that can be redeployed to critical COVID wards.

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'In a crisis, it is smart not to use up all your reserves and private hospital nurses and doctors are a surge workforce under the code brown declaration that may well be needed over the next few weeks,' ANMF (Vic Branch) Acting Secretary Paul Gilbert said.

'We need more time to help nurses and midwives, who have held our health system together in a once-in-a-century crisis to debrief, understand what they've just been through and take some time to recharge."

As politicians from all sides embroil themselves in the discussions, the state government remains firm that they are assessing the circumstances as they come.

In a visit to Bendigo Health on Thursday, COVID commander Jeroen Weinmar said he was cautious about whether the Omicron peak had actually passed, arguing the return of schools this week could mean a further surge in cases.

"Conversations about this are taking place across our health system," he said, "obviously what we have to balance is that we still have 752 Victorians requiring strong and supported care to deal with their current COVID-19 conditions."

"That pressure is starting to ease up a bit and I know we will want to reinstate any of these services as soon as we possibly can."

With AAP

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