Waterloo-Wellington hospitals to resume some same-day procedures

Hospitals in Waterloo-Wellington will soon resume some non-emergency surgeriesafter they were ordered to halt these procedures last month to free up capacity for COVID-19 patients.

In a memo to hospitalsthis week, Ontario's chief medicalofficer of health cautioned the restart of non-emergency procedures will depend on the capacity of individual facilities and it will not be uniformacross the province.

"At this point in time, new cases, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions appear to be trending downward," Dr. David Williams wrote in the memo.

In Waterloo-Wellington, hospitals will begin with same-day procedures that are not expected to require inpatient or critical resources, said Lee Fairclough,president of St. Mary's General Hospital and the regional hospital lead for COVID response.

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'It will take time'

This will allow hospitals to maintain their ability to pivot and respond to higher numbers of COVID-19 patients, if necessary, she said.

"As a region, we will continue to closely monitor COVID casesand respond quickly," Fairclough said in a statement.

"It will take time to fully restore surgical and procedural care in our hospitals; but I am glad we're at this point in the process."

Stephan Beckhoffat Cambridge Memorial Hospital said officials there are "very excited" by the news.

"It means that our community's efforts to keep the infection from spreading and the province-wide vaccination program are helping to reduce the number of COVID-19 related hospitalizations in Ontario," Beckhoff said.

"We are hopeful this will be the beginning of a sustained effort to get through the backlog of more than 2,400 surgeries were deferred since the pandemic was declared in March 2020."

Local hospitals are expected to provide more information in the days to come. Patients will be contacted if they need to prepare for operations, the statement from Fairclough said.

There are approximately 2,000 patients waiting for surgeries and procedures at St. Mary's General Hospital, a spokesperson said in a statement. Grand River Hospital said it, too, has about 2,000 patients awaiting surgeries and procedures.