HIP replacements are among the 'non-urgent' operations which will be cancelled over coming months as the health service redeploys staff to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Assurances were given yesterday however by a leading doctor that cancer surgery will be going ahead, with the situation being kept "under constant review".
Dr Miriam McCarthy of the Public Health Agency (PHA) also said there would be an increase in the number of telephone consultations between hospital doctors and patients, particularly the elderly.
Addressing concerns about which non-urgent operations will be postponed as part the health service's surge planning, she said appreciated it wasn't "easy listening" for some, adding that orthopaedic surgery will be among affected.
"Some hip replacements may to be paused for a period of time...right now is not the time," she said.
Dr McCarthy said telephone appointments with consultants would help protect the elderly from infection by ensuring they wouldn't have to sit in busy waiting rooms.
"Medical staff will be doing things in a different way," she said.
She was speaking at a "remote" briefing that was streamed on the PHA website where questions were also forwarded by journalists on a range of issues, including projections on infection rates and deaths.
While it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of the north's population could contract the virus, Dr Lourda Geoghegan insisted that the actions the public taking over coming weeks will "directly influence the number of infections and the number of people who pass away".
Assurances were given about the number of life-saving ventilators "for the moment" but they did not know what the situation will be "in the next two to four weeks".
Dr Geoghegan also stressed that ventilators can only be operated by "really specialist staff" including expert nurses, anaesthetists and Intensive Care staff - which she explained is why trusts will "stepping down" non-urgent procedures to redeploy these workers.
