NBRHC will be moving to delay all elective surgeries effective Monday May 3, 2021.
The North Bay Regional Hospital is holding a news conference at 2 p.m. to reveal details about how it will handle elective surgeries.
Starting Monday, all elective surgeries will be delayed.
"This action is being taken to preserve health system capacity and help to ensure Ontario’s health care system can continue to meet the needs of critically ill patients," says a hospital advisory.
"All urgent and emergent surgeries and procedures will continue. Patients will continue to have access to health services such as diagnostic services directly related to the provision of urgent or emergent surgeries and procedures."
Dr. Neva Fantham-Tremblay, Medical Director of Surgery and Dr. Jennifer Mihill, Head of Anaesthesia and COVID-19 Critical Care Preparedness Lead will speak at the event.
BayToday will cover and report fully after the virtual news conference.
It comes on the heels of a government decision to maximize critical care capacity.
"In response to the recent and rapid rise in hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and the threat to the province’s critical care capacity, the Ontario government is taking further action to ensure hospital beds are available for COVID-19 patients in need of urgent care," says a government release this morning. "To do so, the province is amending O. Reg. 272/21 under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to ensure patients receive quality care in the most appropriate setting during the third wave of the pandemic, driven by variants of concern.
"This temporary emergency order will provide hospitals with the flexibility to transfer patients whose doctors have determined no longer require hospital care to long-term care or retirement homes without obtaining the consent of the patient or, where the patient is incapable, their substitute decision-maker."
The amended order can only be used during major surge events where the demand for critical care threatens to overwhelm a hospital and compromise care.
"Hundreds of individuals in hospital are waiting to be discharged to a long-term care home or another more appropriate care setting and first priority will be given to patients with less complex care needs and those who are able to be moved close to their preferred choice," explains the release.
“The spread of COVID-19 variants continues to pose a significant threat to our health system’s critical care capacity and the lives of Ontarians,” said Christine Elliott, Minister of Health. “While this is an extremely difficult decision to make, the consequences of not doing so could be devastating if we don’t have the hospital beds we urgently need to care for the growing number of COVID-19 patients."
Meanwhile, NDP Deputy Leader Sara Singh, the Official Opposition critic for Seniors and Long-Term Care, said in a news release, “It’s heartbreaking to think of seniors being sent far from their families, to live in LTC homes they didn’t choose, without their consent. People could be torn away from their loved ones, sent to a place they or their family objects to.
She says Doug Ford is ignoring the experts who say Ontario could help hospitals now by bringing in paid sick days, targeting hotspots with vaccines, and closing down non-essential workplaces.
"If Doug Ford keeps refusing to take those actions to stop the spread, vulnerable seniors and their families will pay the price.”
