As the provincial government eases restrictions on non-urgent surgeries and procedures, Grey Bruce Health Services will begin a gradual re-opening of their Operating Rooms. Elective procedures had been postponed in early January across the province to preserve critical care and human resource capacity in the face of rising hospitalizations for COVID-19.
Surgeons’ offices have begun to call patients to re-book elective surgeries and procedures. Patients are asked to wait for a call, rather than calling their physician’s office or the hospitals at this time.
“We have been providing urgent and emergent surgeries throughout this pandemic, and we are now looking forward to re-booking appointments for elective surgeries and procedures, and ramping up our ambulatory care services,” said Gary Sims, GBHS President and CEO. “Thanks to high vaccination rates and the many sacrifices people have made to keep our communities safe, we are seeing fewer hospitalizations from COVID-19. We have the staff and capacity to begin resuming surgical services.”
The provincial directive permits hospitals to return to 70% of pre-COVID volumes of non-urgent surgeries and procedures. The resumption of full services will depend on several indicators, including the number of COVID-related hospitalizations, stability of staffing levels, and community transmission.
To maintain physical distancing, patients who are coming into hospital for appointments are asked to come alone unless support is required. Earlier this week, restrictions on visitors to hospitals were eased. Inpatients may now have two visitors, and they must be the same two visitors throughout the patient’s hospital stay.
