Health Sciences North in Sudbury has been given permission to start ramping up surgeries that had been put on a wait-list because of the demands of the pandemic.
It means that the hospital hopes to reach up to 80 per cent of its historical surgical volume beginning the week of May 31, said HSN in its weekly update.
This follows an earlier directive from the province where HSN, and other Ontario hospitals, ramped down surgical activity in anticipation of a surge in the demand for ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds as a result of a spike in COVID cases.
Locally that meant that HSN took in a total of 10 seriously ill COVID-19 patients from Southern Ontario hospital in recent weeks. The last of the patient transfers took place on May 3, said HSN.
Following what was termed Directive No. 2 from the Ministry of Health, HSN had ramped down surgical activity to 60 per cent, meaning that bed space and health care staff could be redirected to critical care.
"On Wednesday, May 19, 2021, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health rescinded Directive No. 2 for health-care providers, enabling hospitals that meet certain criteria to cautiously resume non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures, working closely with Ontario Health and regional leadership," said the hospital.
Accordingly, HSN will gradually begin increasing surgical activity with a plan of reaching the 80 per cent level, starting next week.
"HSN will continue to monitor capacity for further ramp up going forward. Patients impacted will be contacted directly by the hospital. There is no need to phone the hospital asking for an update on the status of your appointment or procedure," said the update.
Most of the surgeries that had been pushed back were elective or non-urgent cases, said previous hospital statements. HSN also said that most cardiac and cancer-related surgeries were carried out as planned and as required.
In an earlier report to the HSN board of directors, hospital president and CEO Dominic Giroux revealed that the surgery backlog before the pandemic was roughly 3,500 procedures, but the wait list peaked at about 4,200 cases in the fall. That number has since dropped down to less than 4,000 procedures.
In the meantime, there is still a COVID-19 outbreak in place at the hospital, according to the latest information provided by Public Health Sudbury and Districts. The outbreak on the sixth floor, south tower was declared on May 4, 2021 and according to the PHSD summary on May 24, the outbreak was still "active."
The health unit also reported in its latest summary that outbreaks were active at the Discovery Early Learning child care in Garson, at the IAMGOLD Cote Lake mining project being developed near the Watershed and at the Vale Limited Totten Mine in Sudbury.
