From January 6, all emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will be the only procedures to continue in public and private hospitals across the state.

The Department of Health made the announcement late on Wednesday afternoon, saying this would help keep hospitals up and running.

"As the Omicron strain continues to spread rapidly, these changes will reduce the strain on our hospitals by ensuring as many resources as possible are available across the system to manage both COVID-19 demand, as well as other patients with emergency and urgent medical needs," a department spokesperson said.

"Elective surgery reductions will also help to make sure our dedicated healthcare workers can focus on managing existing demand and preparing for additional coronavirus patients."

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The reductions will apply to public health services in Melbourne and Barwon Health, Ballarat Health Services campus of Grampians Health, Bendigo Health, Goulburn Valley Health and Latrobe Regional Hospital.

Private hospitals and day procedure centres in Melbourne and private hospitals in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, the Latrobe Valley and Shepparton will also be required to follow the same restrictions.

Elective surgery procedures where the patient is already scheduled for admission on January 6 and 7, may still occur where it is not safe or logistically possible to postpone.

These changes will enable public and private hospitals to work as one system to make the best use of available capacity.

Those waiting for non-urgent elective surgery who are impacted by the changes are encouraged to reach out to their general practitioner should their condition in any way deteriorate, so they can be reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required.

Surgery settings will continue to be reviewed regularly to ensure enough beds for coronavirus patients are maintained and non-urgent surgery can resume when it is safe to do so.

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