{"id":14204,"date":"2020-05-08T20:28:52","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T00:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/?p=14204"},"modified":"2020-05-18T01:00:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T05:00:17","slug":"more-than-1000-non-urgent-surgeries-completed-since-covid-19-restrictions-were-eased-ahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/more-than-1000-non-urgent-surgeries-completed-since-covid-19-restrictions-were-eased-ahs\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,000 non-urgent surgeries completed since COVID-19 restrictions were eased: AHS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alberta Heath Services said more than 1,000 non-urgent surgeries have been completed in the province since health officials announced on Monday<\/a> that it was resuming some scheduled procedures.<\/p>\n

According to health officials, 200 surgeries were scheduled for Friday alone, and that doesn\u2019t include urgent and emergency surgeries.<\/p>\n

Types of surgeries completed this week include minor orthopedic procedures, urology, ears, nose, throat, ophthalmology, cataracts and some reconstructive plastic surgeries, AHS said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this has been difficult on Albertans,\u201d Dr. Mark Joffe said. \u201cWe are sorry for the inconvenience, the pain, the distress that\u2019s being suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Non-urgent scheduled and elective surgeries had been put on pause in March as the health-care system braced for COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions.<\/p>\n

Between 3,500 and 4,000 elective surgeries had been postponed each week since the pause in procedures mid-March, AHS said.<\/p>\n

\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Restarting some elective procedures this week is one piece of the province\u2019s relaunch plan.<\/p>\n

AHS said it\u2019s planning on completing between 26,000 and 30,000 surgeries over the next six weeks, which is between 70 and 81 per cent of typical volumes experienced by Alberta hospitals.<\/p>\n

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates<\/a> ]<\/em><\/p>\n

The procedures will include between 9,000 and 13,000 scheduled surgeries as well as roughly 17,000 urgent procedures.<\/p>\n

But some patients, like Laura Willes, will still have to wait for their procedure.<\/p>\n

Willes has been waiting for a double hip replacement for more than a year, and was scheduled for surgery on March 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a more complicated surgery than a regular single hip replacement,\u201d Willes said. \u201cIt will require me to be in the hospital for three or four days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main focus for AHS is surgeries and procedures for things like cataracts, gynecological issues, noses, vascular issues, urology issues and general day surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery.<\/p>\n

However, AHS said that surgeries that require an overnight stay at the hospital are not being scheduled just yet as they work to ensure they have the capacity needed for a potential surge in COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n

\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

According to Joffe, health officials are looking at overnight procedures as one option to try and deal with the backlog of surgeries.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly in the next several weeks, as long as things go smoothly, we will be getting back to the usual procedures that will require overnight or longer stays,\u201d Joffe said.<\/p>\n

According to Friends of Medicare, an Edmonton-based non-profit that advocates for public health care, the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for the health-care system to evaluate how to prioritize surgeries and address wait times and backlogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be an incredible challenge, but not impossible,\u201d Friends of Medicare\u2019s executive director Sandra Azocar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait times have been a situation that hasn\u2019t been dealt with pre-COVID-19, so now what we\u2019re going to have to do is get a commitment from this government to use evidence-based system improvements that will be necessary to make more efficient use of the surgical and diagnostic resources that we currently have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emergency surgeries and urgent procedures have continued through the pandemic.<\/p>\n

According to AHS, a centralized booking office is co-ordinating surgeries and procedure planning, and Albertans currently on the waitlist will be contacted in the coming days to reschedule their procedures.<\/p>\n

AHS said acuity and wait times will drive their decision-making around scheduling surgery and procedures, which could include surgeries being assigned to available surgeons rather than the one the patient was initially assigned.<\/p>\n

\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

While Willes is unsure when her procedure will be scheduled, she said she is optimistically waiting by the phone to get the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very hopeful I\u2019ll get it soon,\u201d Willes said. \u201cWe will be very happy and grateful when we get that call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013With files from Global News\u2019 Julia Wong<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alberta Heath Services said more than 1,000 non-urgent surgeries have been completed in the province since health officials announced on Monday that it was resuming some scheduled procedures.According to health officials, 200 surgeries were scheduled for Friday alone, and that doesn\u2019t include urgent and emergency surgeries.Types of surgeries completed this week include minor orthopedic procedures,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[120,162,161,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15444,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14204\/revisions\/15444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}