Hospitals allowed to resume elective surgeries and procedures

The provincial government says hospitals will be allowed to resume scheduled surgeries and procedures as long as they don’t impede the battle against COVID-19.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement early Thursday afternoon alongside Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

The province says it has developed a “comprehensive framework” to help hospitals assess if they are ready to gradually reintroduce elective surgeries while maintaining capacity to respond to COVID-19.

“We’re taking a responsible and gradual approach to resuming scheduled surgeries, one that will keep our health care system strong, protect our frontline staff and patients, and ensure our hospitals stay prepared for any potential outbreak or surge of COVID-19,” said Ford in a news release. “We’re asking each hospital to come up with a plan based on their community’s needs and the trends they’re seeing on the ground. Together, we can get surgeries back on track as soon as possible.”

Hospitals must meet certain criteria before resuming procedures including having a stable number of COVID-19 cases; a stable supply of personal protective equipment; a stable supply of medications; an adequate capacity of inpatient and intensive care unit beds; an adequate capacity of health human resources; and the availability of post-acute care outside the hospital that would be required to support patients after discharge.

“Delaying scheduled surgeries was one of the toughest decisions we had to make as we responded to the growing threat of COVID-19,” said Elliott in a news release. “However, it was imperative to ensure our readiness to protect the health and wellbeing of Ontarians as we planned for a worst-case scenario. Due to the collective efforts of everyone to stop the spread of this virus, we are now in a position where we can begin to plan for ramping up surgeries.”

Hospitals will also need to assess if there is enough staff, equipment and other resources as a first step.

They must re-assess on a weekly basis to determine if they can continue providing care.

In order to prioritize surgeries, staff will look at a patient’s condition, the type of procedure a patient requires and whether options for non-operative treatments exist, the associated risks of delaying a patient’s surgery and the resources required in terms of personal protective equipment, medications, intensive care unit beds, and other care requirements needed after an operation.