According to the Medical Director of Surgery at North Bay Regional Health Centre, surgical wait times locally are significantly lower than in other areas of the province and the department has managed to adjust and keep pace with its caseload as the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved.
"Our surgeons continue to run their full office practices and we are well poised to immediately resume all surgeries as soon as Directive 2 is lifted, states Dr. Neva Fantham-Tremblay in response to BayToday's questions about a surgical backlog at the hospital. "Over the course of the pandemic, NBRHC has not had to delay any cancer surgeries, and before the announcement in January, we had caught up on previously delayed surgeries."
Directive 2 is a provincial mandate, meaning that all hospitals must comply. Citing immediate health risks to Ontarians, the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health directed health care providers, as of Jan. 5, to "ramp down non-emergent or non-urgent surgeries and procedures in order to preserve system capacity to deal effectively with COVID-19 with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of concern."
"We have been operating at full capacity for much of the pandemic while aligning with Ministry Of Health mandates," advises Fantham-Tremblay, although those are not unique circumstances, she says, as "hospitals were running at full capacity much of the time before this pandemic, and COVID-19 is that drop that made the buckets overflow."
The situation locally is a stark contrast to what many hospitals face. According to a recent Ontario Medical Association survey, besides the COVID-19 situation, Ontarians are also raising concerns about the backlog in surgeries and medical treatments, as well as wait times in hospitals.
See related: Health care survey shows continued concern for hospital wait times and backlogs for medical treatments
The Canadian Institute for Health Information reports, as of Dec. 2021, Canadian hospitals have performed 560,000 fewer surgeries since the start of the pandemic, compared with previous years. On average, surgeries decreased by about 35,000 per month. The biggest decreases were seen in cataract surgeries (an average of 5,900 fewer surgeries performed per month) and hip and knee joint replacements (an average of 2,100 fewer per month). The CIHI is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing essential health information to all Canadians.
"Surgeries resumed to near pre-pandemic levels during the summer and fall of 2020," according to the CIHI data, "but declined again in spring 2021 as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged, particularly in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia."
"We are committed to providing a safe environment for our staff and our patients, which means that many staff are unable to work due to COVID-related illness or contacts," says Fantham-Tremblay. "We are acutely aware that each surgery is important and impactful to the individual affected. Delaying surgery impacts not only the patient’s well-being but their families and workplaces."
See also: More than $1B needed to clear surgical backlogs: Canadian Medical Association
The provincial directive calls for hospitals and surgical units to conserve as much human resource capacity as possible. They are to make room in hospitals for local patient needs as well as to accept transfers from overwhelmed neighbouring communities.
"As surgeons, it is disappointing to see this situation affect our patients yet again when we are all yearning for a return to normal life," Fantham-Tremblay observes.
