THUNDER BAY – Across Ontario, there’s about a 150,000-surgery backlog in provincial hospitals, a number that grew exponentially with the onset of COVID-19.
Locally, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is well ahead of the curve, but Dr. Stewart Kennedy, who headed the hospital’s COVID-19 response, said by October the facility’s surgical teams could be asked to perform operations at well over capacity in order to clear the wait list.
Kennedy said this will mean running the surgical department seven days a week, with surgeries being performed during the day, in the evening and on weekends.
It’s the only way to ensure patients get the care they need, he said.
“We’re increasing our capacity to 100 per cent in mid-September and by early October we’re going to 120 per cent of capacity in this hospital, to deal with our backlog,” Kennedy said. “We should be able to deal with our backlog in the next nine to 12 months, and that’s probably ahead of most centres in Ontario.”
In pre-COVID times, Kennedy estimated the hospital has about 3,000 surgical patients on its waitlist at any given time. The hospital stopped all non-essential surgeries in March, then slowly started them again in the summer.
“At this point in time we have 4,000 surgical cases waiting for surgery.”
Not all of the cases are considered emergencies.
Those type of surgeries never stopped at Thunder Bay Regional during the pandemic.
Kennedy said the return to full capacity and beyond can’t happen overnight. Human resources challenges present the largest obstacle, he added.
“It’s a lot more money because we have to do a seven-day-a-week operation. We have to bring our nurses, our operating room team and physicians in seven days a week and work longer into the evenings,” Kennedy said.
“Certainly we only have one facility and that facility is already maxed out, so that’s why we have to expand the hours at this facility.”
Kennedy cautioned that the ambitious surgery clearance goal is only attainable if the hospital doesn’t get overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases.
There are currently no active cases in the Thunder Bay District, and hasn’t been one in more than a week, giving Kennedy reassurance that it’s the right time clear as many surgeries off the book as possible.
“I’ve said before many times we’re going to lose more people from other diseases not related to COVID-19 than to COVID-19,” he said. “So we’ve got to get moving and take care of the health of this community.”
Kennedy said hospital officials are keeping an eye on case numbers as they start to grow elsewhere in Ontario, but said they’ve got confidence Thunder Bay should remain in good shape, given the lack of confirmed case growth over the busy summer months.
