Some elective surgeries being postponed, Brandon hospital affected

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This article was published 20/12/2021 (1438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some elective surgeries in Manitoba will be postponed to make room for urgent operations, including ones performed at Brandon Regional Health Centre. 

COVID-19 patients are filling up hospitals, Shared Health said yesterday, and to ensure emergent, urgent and cancer surgical cases are prioritized for available slates and staffing in the coming days, some scheduled elective procedures have been postponed as of Monday. 

Dr. Ed Buchel, surgery lead with Shared Health, explained this is not a reduction, this is re-prioritizing capacity to the most urgent cases to get as many of them completed this week. 

The surgical prioritization plan will have two components: rural and city. In rural areas, which include Brandon, the priority is to maintain capacity in anticipation of rising COVID cases during the holidays and into January. 

At Brandon Regional Health Centre, elective endoscopy will be postponed and staff will be redeployed to the intensive care unit to maintain the current beds and to add two beds as needed. They are still running urgent and emergent endoscopies. 

Buchel said that enhanced surgical capacity is expected to be maintained for the next two to four weeks, which he said is normal for the Christmas break. The ICU is over regular capacity for the region. 

All affected patients will be informed directly. No procedures have been postponed, yet, but he said he anticipated that would happen in the coming days. 

From a surgical standpoint, he said, Brandon Regional Health Centre and other rural hospitals had been doing very well during the pandemic. There are wait lists for surgery and endoscopy in Prairie Mountain Health, but they are comparably smaller than many regions. 

“That is a testament to the work that is being done by the administration, the nursing staff and the nursing team picking up extra shifts to run surgical services and staff their ICU.” 

There have been calls for anyone who is not vaccinated to be given lower priority for surgery. Buchel said that is not happening. They are putting priority on quality of life. If they are not vaccinated, they will encourage the person to get vaccinated in time for their procedure. They also will encourage them to isolate until the day of their surgery and test them before surgery. Staff attending will continue to wear personal protective equipment to ensure their safety. 

“It is a significant burden on staff and significant risk to health-care providers and a big risk to those already in hospital,” he said. “It is a scientifically and medically wrong decision to make and absolutely hurts our ability to provide care and jeopardizes the people who are trying to keep them alive. But, we do not prioritize them any differently than any other patient other than the needs of that patient from a medical and surgical standpoint.” 

At Carman Memorial Hospital, outpatient surgeries and endoscopies scheduled this month and in January will be postponed so staff can be deployed to keep 10 beds open at Boundary Trails Health Centre in Winkler. 

The city plan is of course focused on Winnipeg operating rooms being prioritized for only the most urgent cases as the health-care system braces for another surge of COVID-19 patients, driven in part by the highly contagious omicron variant. 

Elective surgeries at Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital and Grace Hospital have been postponed as of Monday. 

About 1,200 surgeries will be carried out this week in Winnipeg and priority is being given to patients who are in hospital or cancer patients who require immediate surgery. 

He added between 40 and 60 people are waiting for emergency surgery at any given time. 

Shared Health officials have said previously at a rate of two COVID-19 ICU admissions a day, other health services, including surgeries, would be reduced to meet demand from COVID-19 patients. At a rate of three or more admissions a day, out-of-province transfers could be necessary. 

Health Minister Audrey Gordon and Ron Schuler, the minister responsible for the Emergency Measures Organization, had asked the federal government to send between 15 and 30 ICU nurses for a six-week period.

In a statement Saturday, a spokesperson for federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair confirmed up to eight nurses would be deployed to Manitoba until Jan. 17, and that may be extended. The number of nurses available to Manitoba reflected Ottawa’s supply and the needs both governments outlined during negotiations. The eight critical care nurses with the Canadian Red Cross arrived in Manitoba on Monday and were deployed to the Health Sciences Centre, the spokesman said.

Buchel insisted the lower than requested number of nurses did not influence the decision to postpone or re-prioritize surgical slates this weekend. 

If they do not see significant hospitalizations and ICU admissions from the omicron variant over the next few weeks, the province will go back to the current slating for surgeries and procedures.

» kmckinley@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press