Some elective and non-urgent surgeries are set to resume at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA).
CKHA President and CEO Lori Marshall said only outpatient and day surgeries, such as hernia and tonsil procedures, will resume on Tuesday. Ontario Health ordered elective and non-urgent surgeries suspended last month to allow hospitals to deal with a surge of COVID-19 cases and a record number of hospitalizations across the province. Marshall said that order was rescinded on Tuesday.
Marshall added the hospital group will proceed carefully with surgeries over the next few weeks to make sure there's enough bed capacity at the hospital to respond to an unexpected emergency or need. She is also waiting for further direction to go ahead with in-patient surgeries.
"We will not be increasing the number of in-patient surgeries at this time, we will await further direction on that," said Marshall.
She noted surgical cases are prioritized based on their clinical assessment by surgeons, adding that cancer and cancer-related surgeries have been highly prioritized during the pandemic. Marshall noted that urgent surgeries have continued throughout the pandemic.
Marshall said patients will be notified directly by their doctors about when their elective and non-urgent surgeries can move forward.
Marshall doesn't know how big the local surgical backlog is but said there were 2,400 fewer surgeries performed last year compared to the previous year. She added the goal is to cut wait times for procedures and she hopes to return to pre-pandemic wait times before the end of this year.
Meantime, the staff at the Chatham hospital are getting some well deserved praise from a Toronto area transfer patient who didn't even know where Chatham was until they needed care in Chatham.
Marshall swelled with pride as she recalled the letter sent to the hospital calling the nurses "angels on earth."
"They were initially concerned when they told they were going to be transferred from the GTA to Chatham. They did not know where Chatham was in the province but when they were here they were very complimentary of the care and indicated that our staff and physicians are angels on earth," said Marshall.
She doesn't have a total number of patients transferred from outside of Chatham-Kent over the past month but at one point last week the hospital in Chatham had six transfers.
