Emergency medicine specialists want non-critical elderly patients moved out of hospitals.

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) says aged care residents who are recovering from coronavirus in Melbourne hospitals have nowhere to go.

ACEM president John Bonning says there needs to be a national strategy to keep aged care patients out of hospitals.

“We've got numerous examples today, in emergency departments in Melbourne, of patients waiting more than 24 hours in ED for beds,” Dr Bonning said.

“In fact, I was aware of one particular patient that had been waiting for 60 hours for a bed.”

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews says the state is attempting to deal with the crisis in aged care partly by cancelling elective surgeries to free up capacity in hospitals.

“I'm not going to put anyone that's in a hospital bed back into an aged care bed unless I am 100 per cent satisfied that that system can provide for them,” Mr Andrews over the weekend.

However, the families of some elderly people do not want their parents and grandparents returning to homes that are hotspots for COVID-19.

Almost two-thirds of the Victoria’s coronavirus deaths are linked to the aged care sector, and about half of the people with active cases in hospital are linked to aged care.

Dr Bonning says the problems is made more difficult by the fact that the Victorian Government is having to handle an issue that is technically under the authority of the Federal Government.

“We want the federal and state governments to speak to each other so we're not left with these vulnerable aged care residents in hospitals, which is not a good place for them,” he said.

“We can't just have these people dumped in hospital. There needs to be a coordinated plan.”

Premier Daniel Andrews says that while criticism of the aged care COVID-19 crisis “came from the best of places”, the Victorian Government is talking to the Commonwealth about the situation “every single day”.

“My concerns are for the residents and their families and that will not change,” he said.

Mr Andrews said he had spoken about transmission from aged care homes to residents' families directly with the Prime Minister.

“I can tell you he and I are both very motivated to try and improve this. It's very challenging, more challenging than I'd like it to be,” Mr Andrews said.