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THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre wants more provincial funding to reduce the backlog of surgeries exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
President and CEO Rhonda Crocker Ellacott says, "We know there's a significant number of patients waiting for surgery, and the wait list has crept up."
The number of patients on the list was recently close to 5,000, including an increase of 1,000 cases that occurred during the pandemic.
In an interview Thursday, Crocker Ellacott said the hospital has made some inroads in dealing with the problem, but it remains "a work in progress."
It's why TBRHSC submitted a proposal for additional support.
Crocker Ellacott said the leaders of the hospital's surgical section are also examining "who's on the waiting list, how long they've been waiting, and making sure those people are being done as quickly as possible."
Other options may include extending operating room hours, and offering patients the option of having their surgery at another Northwestern Ontario hospital.
Crocker Ellacott said the hospital is also "trying to look at options to extend our anesthesiologists, and to look at other extenders to try to increase the amount of surgical time. There's many different facets to try to address long waiters, but we're working hard together with our physicians and our offices to address those patients that have been waiting the longest."
She said there's been no response yet to the request for more government funding to facilitate these measures.
"We have a multi-pronged approach that's a regional approach. It's not just Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. It's something that we work in partnership with Fort Frances, Dryden and Kenora, for example."
In the meantime, staff shortages related to COVID-19 continue to pose a challenge.
Crocker Ellacott said, "Our numbers have been fairly consistent... about 68 staff are currently off, either isolating [or ill] with COVID-19. It's always a challenge having significant numbers of staff off."
