Doctors say they are encouraged by early progress in talks to solve the surgical crisis which has been un-folding at Shoalhaven Hospital.

The contracts of the region's two general surgeons, Professor Martin Jones and Dr Mark Hehir, expire at the end of the month.

If the contracts are not renewed by today week, the Shoalhaven surgical patients run the risk of  having to be  transferred to Wollongong or Sydney,  for their operations.

Professor Jones says talks have been held at Health Department and a political level,  and is he now more hopeful the matter will be resolved, and patients lives will not be put at risk.

He says since the resignations of three other surgeons late last year he and Dr Hehir have been each seeing around 90 patients a month, compared with about 16 to 20, for their counterparts in Sydney.