(File photo/CJME News)

By CKOM News

SURGERIES

Saskatchewan reveals plans to reduce surgical wait times, increase ICU beds

Dec 9, 2021 | 2:07 PM

Saskatchewan is taking steps to eliminate the surgical backlog caused by COVID-19, and to create more intensive care beds for patients.

On Thursday, the government and the Saskatchewan Health Authority announced a plan to cut into the surgeries that were postponed during the pandemic and to have maximum wait times of three months by 2030.

“Delays in surgeries and medical procedures have taken a heavy toll on quality of life for thousands of Saskatchewan patients,” Premier Scott Moe said in a media release.

“While urgent life-saving surgeries were continuing to be performed through the pandemic, since March 2020 we know there were a large volume of surgeries that were delayed due to COVID-related surgical slowdowns.”

There are approximately 35,000 people on waitlists right now, but Health Minister Paul Merriman said Thursday he expects that number to go up.

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As for ICU beds, Saskatchewan had 79 when the pandemic hit the province — which wasn’t enough to treat COVID and non-COVID patients. That forced health officials to send more than 25 ICU patients to Ontario for treatment.

The province’s plan is to increase the number of ICU beds to 90 by June of next year and to get to 110 in the future.

The surgical backlog

To eliminate the backlog, the government and SHA have set a target of doing 7,000 surgeries over pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23, 6,000 operations over those levels in 2023-24 and 5,000 surgeries more than those levels in 2024-25.

“There will be an emphasis on surgical procedures with higher numbers of long-waiting patients, including hip and knee replacements, ear/nose/throat, dental and general surgeries,” the media release said.

To achieve those goals, the SHA will extend operating room hours and use more regional surgical sites. As well, private clinics will be employed to do more operations and more types of surgeries, freeing up SHA facilities to do more complex procedures.

“A Request for Information (RFI) will be issued today to test the market for additional third-party surgical providers for day procedures, overnight inpatient surgeries, and post-operative care including therapies and home care,” the release said. “These services would be publicly funded.”

ICU capacity

The province plans to increase staffing to handle the larger number of ICU beds.

It’s looking to hire additional nurses and other members of care teams, while Saskatchewan Polytechnic is to increase specialized critical care training seats in 2021-22 to 144 to handle the need for more staff.

“The SHA is also adding 10 high-acuity beds in Regina to ease pressure on ICUs and assist with patient transition between levels of care; these beds are planned to open in spring 2022,” the government’s release said.

Because COVID caused an increase in the number of patients who need long-term ventilation, the SHA and the Ministry of Health are looking at a program that will care for those patients outside of critical care settings.

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