The Victorian government has announced that it will spend $1.5 billion (US$1.12 billion) to reduce the state’s elective surgery waitlist backlog via a catch-up scheme expected to raise surgical capacity by 25 percent. The COVID Catch-Up Plan, which is designed to increase surgical activity across the state to 125 percent of the pre-pandemic level by 2023, will drive up the total number of surgeries to 240,000 per year in 2024. “We know that COVID, twice, has hit elective surgeries hard,” Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters on April 3.”This plan will see record numbers of Victorians get the surgeries they need while making sure our frontline workforce is supported.” Due to COVID restrictions implemented in the past two years, the state’s non-urgent surgery waitlists have shot through the roof. In January, the Victorian government put category two and three procedures on hold, with 80,000 people on the waiting list in …