As COVID numbers across the province continue to decline and the pressure is being taken off hospitals, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has been given the green light to start booking surgeries once again, starting Tuesday, May 25th.
CEO Lori Marshall says it’s important to start getting back to normal to help those who’ve been forced to wait for treatment.
“Given our favourable capacity and local conditions, over the next few weeks we will be taking a careful and thoughtful approach to the resumption of election surgeries and procedures based on the direction received from Ontario Health.”
CKHA and other hospitals across Ontario got the word in early April to be prepared to ramp down as COVID-19 cases soared and beds in ICUs across Ontario filled up.
For now, the hospital will focus on elective and outpatient procedures that don’t require a long stay.
“We will not be proceeding to increase the number of inpatient surgeries at this time,” Marshall says. “It’s important to know that surgical cases are priorities based on their clinical assessments by surgeons, and over the course of the pandemic, certainly cancer and cancer-related surgeries have been highly prioritized.”
Patients will be contacted by their doctor when it’s time to rebook.
In the meantime, Marshall says the hospital needs to maintain bed capacity in order to respond to any needs that might arise locally or as part of load-balancing across the province as the third wave of the pandemic drags on.
