Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

ROYAL INLAND HOSPITAL

Elective surgeries resume at RIH; orthopedic surgeon says many challenges remain

Oct 7, 2021 | 4:10 PM

KAMLOOPS — Elective surgeries will resume at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) this week, but one orthopedic surgeon says it’s not that simple.

“We’re one bad bus accident away from being completely shut down on any surgical level,” said Dr. Scott Hughes, orthopedic surgeon at RIH.

The response comes after Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Tuesday that elective surgeries at RIH will resume after a seven-week pause.

“I think it’s important for everybody to know that it’s just not an open dam where surgeries are all going to begin and nobody’s going to get cancelled,” Dr. Hughes elaborated.

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“In fact, I would argue the opposite. We’re going on a case-by-case basis now,” he continued.

Elective surgeries are dependant on the number of available recovery beds. Intensive care unit capacity has been pushed to the limit by COVID-19 cases. The majority of the hospital’s 13 ICU beds have been occupied by people sick with COVID.

“Those patients overflow into our surgical recovery room, so we have medical patients now taking room in our surgical recovery room. And that’s why we’re not able to transition patients from our operating room to our recovery room,” he explained.

In a statement to CFJC News, Interior Health said it decided to resume elective surgeries because some pressures that were impacting RIH, such as surging cases of COVID-19 and wildfire-related patient volumes, are subsiding.

“There’s a whole team that reviews those decisions to move those patients through the operating room. But those decisions are made upstream. Sometimes they have to be made in a day if we have an emergency situation, but often those are preplanned,” said Tracey Rannie, director of clinical operations at RIH.

Dr. Hughes says the seven-week pause has pushed his surgery wait-list of over 100 people back by two months. Some other surgeons have waitlists of over 300 patients.

“Patients that are waiting for a hip or knee, they’re now reliant on either a walker or, if not a walker, they’re reliant on a wheelchair. You can just imagine the burden that puts upon their loved one who’s caring for them,” said Dr. Hughes.

“A previously completely mobile individual who, if they had a hip or a knee replacement, would likely be back to all the recreational activities that they enjoy.”

And until RIH can add more resources and lessen the number of COVID patients in ICU, the wait time for elective surgeries won’t improve.

“This is not something that’s going to end today, tomorrow or next week. This is an on-going battle that we have to fight. We need resources, we need infrastructure and we need staff.”

Dr. Hughes adds that the public can help the situation by getting vaccinated.