THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has presented a plan to gradually ramp up surgical procedures starting next Monday.
The hospital has asked Ontario Health North (the successor to the former North West and North East Local Health Integration Networks) and the Ministry of Health for approval to resume elective surgery as of June 1.
To start with, however, the rate will be only 25 per cent of the normal number of procedures.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgery was reduced to priority cases only at hospitals across Ontario.
TBRHSC Executive Vice-President Dr. Stuart Kennedy says the local hospital continues to meet all eight criteria established by the ministry before operating rooms can be reopened for elective cases.
Dr. Kennedy said the process of choosing which procedures to do first will involve screening the backlog that dates back three months.
"That'll be an individual consideration between the physician and the patient, and it will be reviewed by our surgical team regarding the appropriateness of it. We have a whole team reviewing things, and it will be based on the decision-maker – the surgeon – as well as the patient, and then we have some oversight," Kennedy said.
He said he didn't have precise numbers on the size of the backlog, but described it as "significant."
"This is just 25 per cent of our pre-existing capacity, so we still need to get to 50 per cent, to 75 to 100 per cent for normal capacity. To deal with the waiting list that was pre-COVID, we're looking to have to ramp up to 125 per cent."
Kennedy said that will require additional staffing and a bigger budget.
"It's going to be a struggle to deal with that backlog. It's not going to take weeks, it's going to be months and months."
In an interview earlier this month, Kennedy expressed sympathy with patients whose lengthy waits for elective surgery have been further delayed by COVID-19 restrictions.
"We call them elective, but they really need to be done. We don't do needless surgery...Everybody on that list needs surgery, and most of them needed it yesterday," he said.
Kennedy said he fully expects the health ministry will approve the plan to restart elective surgeries next week.
