HHS hospitals plan to reduce wait times for certain surgeries
Three Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) hospitals have come up with a plan this fall to reduce wait times for certain surgeries.
Most day surgery for the spine, knee and pediatrics strabismus - known as crossed eyes - performed at Hamilton General Hospital and McMaster Children's Hospital will be moved to the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby - making room for complex cases at the Hamilton General site.
The wait times for these surgeries are longer than the provincial targets, a release from HHS said.
Leslie Gauthier, vice-president of clinical support services and surgeries at HHS, told The Spectator, that the new equipment has already started to arrive at the West Lincoln location and training will be taking place over the summer.
She added the plan is to accommodate an additional 200 surgeries a year across all of HHS" by using the additional capacity at West Lincoln."
Currently, there are a total of 1,396 pediatric patients on HHS' surgical wait list and another 6,053 adults. There are 345 people on the wait list for spine surgeries and 158 for knee surgeries.
West Lincoln will be performing surgeries for patients with lower risk, Gauthier said.
Adults needing surgeries for strabismus have been historically" done at McMaster Children's Hospital.
Gauthier said by moving it to the West Lincoln, we're going to backfill the time at McMaster to do more surgeries for children needing pediatric strabismus (treatment)."
The upcoming plan will not be impacted by the shortage of health-care professionals, as the operating room staff are willing to work through the scheduling issues," Gauthier said.
This would bring Hamilton hospital spine surgeons and general surgeons to the West Lincoln hospital.
West Lincoln will also be adding 10 hours of weekly operating time to accommodate more surgeries. Currently, there are seven hours of operating time per day, which would be extended to nine hours, five days a week - making for an additional 10 hours.
The province has contributed $450,000 for the expansion at HHS.
Gauthier said although it's a small-scale plan, every little bit helps" in tackling the surgery backlog.
Come the fall, our major challenge is our anesthesiologist support," she said. We have some very targeted strategies for adult spine surgery, pediatric surgery and gynecology," adding that these also have long waits.
She noted HHS is working with Ontario Health to deal with the longest-wait patients and clinically urgent patients waiting for surgeries, with potentially more funding to be allocated.
Besides, with the redevelopment plan underway at the West Lincoln, Gauthier said the HHS has started to build the plan for the new hospital," which would help support a lot of our day surgery work."
Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com