By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

boosting operations

Letting guard down ‘wrong thing to do’ as elective surgeries resume

May 1, 2020 | 4:20 PM

Following Thursday’s announcement from Premier Jason Kenney that some delayed surgeries and procedures will soon be able to resume, Alberta Health Services says it’s gearing up to make that happen in a safe manner.

“Resuming day surgical procedures will be done carefully and incrementally. Decisions on which surgeries will proceed are being made at the zone level, and will be guided by the pandemic response requirements, flooding and wildfire activity in different parts of the province,” AHS says in a statement.

Surgeries will be prioritized using established processes with patients at greatest need and those waiting the longest receiving care first.

AHS will begin contacting Albertans through its centralized booking office in the coming days.

“We will ensure that we balance the need to sustain capacity for the anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients, with the need to care for patients requiring surgery,” the statement continues. “To ensure we maintain adequate resources over and above the requirements for COVID-19, we will conduct weekly assessments and adapt as required.”

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AHS adds that it is grateful to all for their patients following the decision to postpone certain procedures earlier this spring.

Dr. Keith Wolstenholme, an orthopedic surgeon practicing at Central Alberta Orthopedics and elsewhere in Central Zone, agrees that now is the right time.

“We held off on elective surgeries because we didn’t want to fill our beds with post-operative patients that might otherwise be needed for COVID-19 patients,” says Wolstenholme. “The good trends we’re seeing means that this is a safe and reasonable approach to start. W’e’re going to begin with day surgery only during the week of May 11, and we’ll always be checking to see what our numbers are as far as COVID-19 patients to ensure we have the resources.”

The doctor notes there are shortages worldwide of certain medications used by anesthesiologists for many types of patients, COVID-19 or otherwise. In Alberta, he says, that isn’t yet an issue, but staff and the powers that be are aware of the possibility.

Furthermore, opening up surgery dates could help with preventing the backlog from getting too severe.

“We had quite a large backlog before the pandemic. To get a hip or knee replacement could take up to two years. Now after missing seven weeks of elective surgeries, we’ll have only added to that,” Wolstenholme explains. “We’ll be interested when the time is right to see what the provincial plan will be to deal with the backlog.”

Meantime, morale is ‘quite good’ at the hospital, according to Wolstenholme.

“When this all started, everybody was understandably nervous and anxious, but with the fact that we’ve done such a good job in Central Zone to flatten the curve and so few people have been admitted to ICU and hospital, morale has definitely improved,” he shares.

“We’re not taking anything for granted or letting our guard down though, and I think that would absolutely be the wrong thing to do.”