Sudbury's Health Sciences North (HSN) is moving forward with plans to resume elective surgeries and other medical procedures as provincial restrictions are being gradually lifted.
It was back in January that the province imposed Directive 2, thus putting many surgeries and procedures on hold in a bid to ensure there was enough capacity in hospitals to cope with an expected spike in hospital admissions caused by more people being infected by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
As Public Health Ontario has determined that the latest wave of infections appears to have peaked, the province is asking hospitals to gradually increase the number of surgeries and medical procedures.
“Thanks to the sacrifices of Ontarians and unwavering efforts of our health care workers, we are now in a position to resume additional surgeries and procedures,” said Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Christine Elliott earlier this month.
“We recognize the impact these measures have had on patients and together with our hospital partners we will ensure patients can continue to access the health care they need when they need it.”
For Sudbury, this means that HSN will move toward a phased resumption of medical procedures.
"Consistent with operational direction received from Ontario Health, our surgical and procedural activity in this second of four phases of resumption of surgical and procedural care will be at approximately 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels," said Jason Turnbull, HSN communications manager.
"Phase 3 will bring us up to 90 per cent, and Phase 4 will be at 100 per cent. The timing of subsequent phases will be determined by Ontario Health," he added.
"It’s important to keep in mind that HSN is still providing care today (Friday) to 47 COVID-19 admitted patients, nearly twice the peak of 2020 and 2021 which was 27," Turnbull added.
A masking requirement will continue at the hospital according to information provided by Ontario chief medical officer Dr. Kieran Moore, during an online news conference Monday morning. He said any change in masking rules will be made gradually and be based on whatever new evidence is available.
The decision to lift the pause on surgeries was also welcomed by the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).
Association president Dr. Adam Kassam said the news is also welcomed by the thousands of patients who had been waiting for treatments, procedures and surgeries.
“The Ontario Medical Association has been advocating for rescinding the order as soon as it was safe to do so,” said Kassam.
Kassam said as much as physicians are pleased to be ramping up procedures, there are still questions of burnout to deal with.
Fully resuming surgeries and procedures is a critical step in addressing the province’s growing medical backlog, said the OMA. But solutions will need to be found that address the fact that physicians and other health-care workers have been working on the front lines of the pandemic for two years and many are suffering from burnout, said the OMA news release.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com. The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible with funding from the federal government.
