While there were some hints from the province last week that hospitals across Ontario would soon be able to start ramping up elective and non-urgent surgeries once again, local officials say they’re still biding their time.
CKHA CEO Lori Marshall says they’re waiting for more direction from the government.
“What we do understand is that the first phase of this is likely to be in diagnostic services, screening services, and some of the ambulatory clinics,” Marshall explains. “It’s important to note that elective surgeries are not in the list of the items in the first phase, and that it may be some time yet before we get the go-ahead to resume with respect to elective surgeries.”
Marshall says in order to return to a somewhat normal surgical schedule, there would need to be fewer COVID patients in hospital and fewer staff off work and redeployed.
While there are not current statistics available because of Directive 2 requiring hospitals to cease all non-urgent or non-emergent surgeries or procedures, the most recent data from December suggests the hospital was performing roughly 175 fewer procedures per week compared to the same time a year ago. She expects it will take roughly a year of normal operation to make that up.
“We need to remember we cannot go directly into a period of working overtime and those sorts of things,” Marshall says. “There’s a limited and finite resource that we have in terms of staff and physicians who are able to provide that care.”
