Some Ontario hospitals allowed to resume non-urgent surgeries

In a letter from Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams to Ontario Hospitals, Dr. Williams says it is now appropriate to resume non-urgent and elective surgeries in hospitals that believe they can do so safely. Hospitals in Ontario were forced to halt those surgeries in April over the third wave and bed capacity concerns.

In the letter obtained by the Canadian Press, Dr. Williams says, "As we gradually and cautiously resume non-urgent and non-emergent care, we will continue to closely monitor COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and critical care capacity and will respond rapidly should we see a worsening of the situation,” he writes in the letter. “We will work with our health system partners to take the necessary measures were needed to ensure all Ontarians continue to have access to critical health care services," the letter continued.

Dr. Williams said that now hospital admissions and ICU occupancy "appear to be trending downward" it is now safe to perform non-urgent surgeries and procedures "in some areas of the province." COVID hospitalizations peaked on April 20 at 2,360 and now stand at 1401. ICU occupancy is down from 900 earlier this month to 736.

This pause of non-urgent procedures has concerned many in the medical community that it make be extremely difficult to catch up. "I have been trying to get my head around it, and it worries me a lot," says Dr. Chris Simpson, Vice-Dean (Clinical) of the School of Medicine at Queen’s University, told Healthy Debate. "But, in general, the prospect of operating at 120 percent or 140 percent of normal volumes for weeks or months, just to catch up with the backlog, is highly problematic from a feasibility point of view." It is yet to be seen which areas of the province will decide to resume the paused surgeries.