GBGH resumes elective and non-urgent procedures and surgeries
February 11, 2022 – Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) is resuming elective and non-urgent procedures and surgeries, as directed by the Ontario government. As per provincial guidance, GBGH had ramped down non-urgent surgeries and procedures on January 7, ensuring critical care capacity and human resources were available to care for COVID-19 and other acute patients.
Upon receiving news the hospital could resume elective and non-urgent procedures, GBGH staff and physicians immediately began working together to re-schedule services postponed over the past month. If a surgery or procedure was postponed during January or February, the hospital or the patient’s physician will contact individuals to re-schedule.
GBGH estimates 245 procedures and surgeries were postponed (January 7 and January 31) due to the service ramp down. The hospital is finalizing its strategy to address the backlog, which may include adding hours in the surgical, ambulatory care and diagnostic imaging departments.
“The decision to resume these procedures and surgeries really is a balance between ensuring there’s bed capacity and sufficient health human resources to safely care for patients,” says Dr. Vikram Ralhan, chief of staff, GBGH. “Although GBGH is still experiencing high occupancy rates in our inpatient beds and ICU, the majority of surgery we perform is day surgery. Urgent and emergent surgeries that require inpatient care post operatively have and will continue. The resumption of services will not impact our bed capacity and our staffing levels have improved dramatically compared to earlier in January. We are confident we have capacity to safely resume services, start making up for the backlog and not further prolong care for patients.”
There is still a possibility that elective and non-urgent surgeries and procedures could be postponed depending on the status of the pandemic.
Contact:
Jennifer Moore
Director, Communications & Stakeholder Relations
705-526-1300 ext 5177