A new procedure offered at Bluewater Health is allowing patients with ailments such as pancreatitis and gallstones to be treated closer to home.
Bluewater Health's surgery program recently invested in technology and training to offer the Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography procedure (ERCP).
Patients in need of this procedure were usually sent to London but the first non-elective procedure was made available locally in early February.
"We've already provided this service to six patients over the last month since we started," said Chief of Staff Dr. Mike Haddad. "On average, we have 200 patients per year who we have to send to London to get this done."
ERCP combines upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and x-ray to treat problems of the bile and pancreatic ducts, read a media release from Bluewater Health. The procedure is done to open blocked or narrowed ducts, break up or remove stones, perform biopsies or remove tumors, and insert stents.
The procedure takes about one to two hours and most patients return home the same day.
In order to offer this procedure locally, a specialist who trained in London, Dr. Colin Way, led mock procedures to train Bluewater Health staff.
"He spent July to December [2022] in London to do it and he just joined us on staff as a full-time surgeon in January," said Haddad. "With the purchase of equipment and the training of the nursing staff and everyone else in the ORs, and with his arrival, now we have the whole team ready."
The new specialty equipment, purchased through the surgical program budget, included a camera-mounted endoscope and a video image monitor.
Haddad said he is thrilled Bluewater Health is now able to offer this procedure to local patients.
"It's part of our larger plans of always trying to have procedures done here, whether it's diagnostics or procedure and care, to reduce the burden and the need to transfer patients to London," Haddad said.