The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is preparing to perform elective procedures again.
Elective surgeries were put on hold in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, CKHA President and CEO Lori Marshall said hospital officials received directions from the province Tuesday evening to allow for a gradual reintroduction of elective surgeries and procedures.
"What that means is we had submitted plans, we've got them all ready...basically over the course of today, we'll be having a chat with our other regional hospitals in Ontario Health to understand the implications of this," she explained. "Then we can start to move towards that."
Marshall said it will be a very gradual process, most likely starting with one additional operating room per day.
"That's a very small number of people that it would apply to," she said. "People will be contacted directly by their surgeon's offices if they've been rebooked or booked for surgery."
In addition to having fewer operating rooms available, Marshall noted that the turn around time between surgeries will be longer than usual to allow for increased sanitation and safety measures.
"There may be things that we are going to have to change, our practices, our processes, rotating rooms. All of those things are going to have to factor into this so that we can still operate from an efficiency perspective and make sure our prime directive is really the safety of our patients and staff," said Marshall.
This news comes as Chatham-Kent begins to see a large increase in the number of tests that are being performed for COVID-19. The requirements were recently changed, allowing anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to the virus to get tested -- even if they are not showing any symptoms.
According to Marshall, Chatham-Kent's assessment centre was seeing an average of 15 to 20 people a day. With the recent changes, the daily average has jumped to around 65.
"Definitely a major increase in the number of people who are coming to the assessment centre now that self-referral are there," said Marshall.
The assessment centre is located at 47 Emma St. in Chatham. Marshall recommends booking an appointment online to avoid waiting or being turned away.
