Non-urgent elective surgeries have been suspended in public hospitals in a bid to ease pressure on the state’s health system.

Urgent surgery will proceed, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard explained, but category two and three surgeries, such as cataracts, will be delayed.

NSW Health staff are “exhausted” he said, with the number of patients presenting to hospitals with COVID symptoms “very problematic”, and hundreds of employees in isolation.

“They’ve made a decision to ease back, and try and relieve some of the pressure on the frontline staff.”

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