The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald has also been told some surgeons are now flouting the bans by falsely classifying simple operations such as angiograms and tonsillectomies as critical surgeries known as category 1, which exempt them from the government freeze. Loading Melbourne ENT Head and Neck surgeon Dr Elizabeth Sigston said the conduct of some surgeons had been "unconscionable". "It should be all about preserving medical supplies, but there are some private hospitals willing to run down supplies to make a dollar in the short term," Dr Sigston said. "It only takes one patient to be infected with COVID- 19 and you've wiped out dozens of health workers, who obviously have to self-isolate for 14 days. At the moment we need every health worker possible."

Dr Sigston said she was aware of several tonsillectomies performed in private facilities over the past week, which are only considered urgent under unique circumstances. "The problem with that procedure is there's about a 10 per cent chance of secondary bleeding over the next fortnight. "All surgeries have a percentage of adverse events that will require further attention down the track and will place a further burden on the system," she said. Sydney urological surgeon Professor Henry Woo confirmed that a small percentage of surgeons and anaesthetists in NSW had been motivated by self interest rather than best clinical practice.

Loading "In that week before April 1 there were a number of surgeons, who in cooperation with private hospitals, ramped up their number of surgeries, which was very much against the recommendations of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists," he said. Professor Woo, from the University of Sydney, said even routine operations could result in mass infections of medical staff. "We can't be sure who's got the virus. So when you do any operation that involves manipulation of the airways for an anaesthetic, that creates the release of aerosol particles that could put entire surgical teams at risk. "We can't afford to lose 10 to 15 per cent of our healthcare workers like we've seen in Europe," Professor Woo said.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have been told two surgeons at Peninsula Private Hospital in Frankston performed up to 20 minor surgeries on the day before the ban came into place, which had caused significant distress to nursing staff. A spokeswoman from Ramsay Health Group did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services would not confirm if the department had received complaints about surgeons ignoring the ban on elective surgeries. "We ask all medical professionals to carefully consider the need for patients to undergo surgery at this time and to only perform essential procedures where necessary,” the DHHS spokesman said.

Loading A spokeswoman for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency also declined to confirm if it had received complaints. On March 25, the federal government announced all non-essential elective surgery would be cancelled in public and private hospitals, other than category 1 or some category 2 cases, where a doctor determines a patient requires urgent attention. But the government backflipped and allowed private hospitals to continue performing non-urgent elective surgeries until April 1, which prompted a furious response from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. RACS president Dr Tony Sparnon said he was "appalled" by the government's decision, which he claimed would undermine the public campaign for people to self-isolate and practise social distancing.