Cambridge Memorial Hospital, local clinic partner to expand GI endoscopy procedures in region

Cambridge Memorial Hospital (CMH) and Tri-City Colonoscopy Clinic (TCC) have teamed up to provide access to gastro-intestinal (GI) endoscopy procedures and services in Waterloo region.

Gastroenterologist and TCC Medical Director Dr. Augustin Nguyen said COVID-19 disrupted the health-care system and placed health-care providers in a position to find unique ways to help address the wait lists.

"As of July 2021, the hospital had a backlog of over 1,600 endoscopy cases, which is much more than what it normally has in any given year," Nguyen said.

"By transferring medically appropriate, low-complexity cases to TCC, we can expect to help the hospital offset as many as 500 cases on that list."

The new partnership is the result of a successful proposal made to Ontario Health that was seeking requests to help address the backlog of procedures created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

More capacity added to health-care system

Stephanie Pearsall, VP clinical programs and chief nursing executive at CMH, said more capacity will be added to the system over the next year as a result of the partnership.

"Coming through a pandemic, we knew that we were faced with a backlog of cases," Pearsall told CBC K-W, adding the hospital was forced to shut down most of its services during the first wave of the pandemic.

"Throughout the waves we've done a really great job of getting those urgent and emergent cases through, but we knew that those lower acuity cases were starting to build and even when we're running at a hundred per cent, it was going to be hard to affect that backlog."

Pearsall said patients can expect the same level of care at TCC that they are accustomed to receiving at CMH.

"It's really access to care and your experience at Tri-City Colonoscopy will be your same experiences at Cambridge Memorial Hospital," Pearsall told CBC K-W.

"We are really excited about it and we hope it's the beginning of a further partnership down the road."