Chatham-Kent’s hospital is quickly forging ahead as it works to alleviate the surgical backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caen Suni, the vice president of clinical programs and operations at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, said the hospital began its surgical renewal strategy in September and is now completing more surgeries than during the same two-month period in 2019.
While hundreds of non-emergency and elective surgeries were put on hold during the first wave of the pandemic, Suni said the CKHA is now among the top hospitals in southwestern Ontario for addressing surgical volume.
“We’re doing 116 per cent of orthopedic procedures when compared to the same procedures two years ago,” said Suni. “And in the last four weeks, we’re doing 217 per cent of cancer surgeries — that’s twice as many as two years for that exact same time period two years ago.”
Suni attributed the increase in the number of surgeries to improved scheduling at CKHA, the creation of new positions in the Women’s and Children’s Unit, the Operating Room, the Perioperative Department, and In-patient Surgery.
“These numbers ebb and flow depending on scheduling, but the fact that they’re significantly higher than those prior volumes a number of years ago, speaks to the strategy and the focus on those areas, and meeting the needs of our community,” said Suni.
Over the summer, the Ministry of Health began working with hospitals in each region to develop a plan that would allow them to recover from pandemic-related surgical backlogs within 12-18 months.
According to Suni, the CKHA focused on five key surgical areas to meet its goals; procedures for women and children, ophthalmology, tonsils, gallbladder procedures, and joint procedures.
