Prospective parents will be able to resume IVF in Victoria after the state government reversed a pause on some procedures.
Acting Health Minister James Merlino has announced some services will restart from Thursday, with hospitals scaling up their operations to enable procedures to resume from 11.59pm on Tuesday.
The health department will work with the Royal Women's Hospital to prioritise urgent patients, ensuring that the changes do not affect the COVID-19 response in that hospital.
IVF clinics were contacted earlier this month and asked to cancel some appointments as part of a pause on elective surgeries as the state's hospital system became overwhelmed due to the Omicron outbreak.
On Tuesday, Victoria called a "Code Brown" emergency — .
The code is aimed at developing a plan that will alleviate the pressure placed on hospitals.
Once this was called, the federal government revealed it would activate an agreement with private hospitals that was created early in the COVID-19 pandemic. This required private hospitals to provide equipment, staff, or other resources to the public health sector when called upon.
Most IVF services are run through the private sector, and some had said those working in the industry to help in intensive care units because they are "technically focussed on IVF services".
Mr Merlino received advice from the chief health officer that restrictions on IVF procedures could be removed, given the "specialist nature of the workforce and the facilities and equipment used are not imperative to support the pandemic response at this time".
Under the pause, the most time-critical IVF procedures for patients such as couples whose eggs were about to expire and women who took pre-cycle medication before 6 January were still able to go ahead.
The move was met with widespread criticism, including from prospective parents, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, with the latter describing it as "cruel and heartless".
An online petition to reinstate fertility and IVF treatments also garnered almost 140,000 signatures.
Victorians had also pleaded publically for the state government to liftt the ban.
In an emotional video posted on Instagram that went viral, Melanie Swieconek said: “Not one other person who is going through IVF or has been through IVF or is just about to start IVF has elected to do it. This is something we are doing as our only opportunity to have a child."
"IVF is a challenging journey for anyone to go through, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic, and we're deeply sorry for the distress caused by affected services in recent weeks," Mr Merlino said.
"We thank Victorians for their patience as we've worked through critical workforce issues, and we'll keep working to have other services restored as soon as we can."
With additional reporting by SBS News.
