New operating room at Concordia Hospital open

Northeast Winnipeg

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This article was published 23/06/2023 (1150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new operating room at Concordia Hospital was officially opened on June 19, six months after it was expected to be operational.

According to a statement from provincial health minister Audrey Gordon, the new space is expected to increase capacity by up to 1,000 inpatient and same-day hip and knee replacement procedures per year. The expansion also includes an additional orthopedic surgeon, investment in anesthesia staff, four new inpatient beds, and additional nursing and allied health staff, for a total of 27 full-time positions.

“This expansion not only increases our capacity but also allows us to reduce wait times and provide our patients with timely access to the care they need,” Carrie Fruehm, president and chief operating officer at Concordia Hospital, said in the statement. The Concordia Hospital Foundation speerheaded fundraising for the project, raising over $350,000.

However, opposition critic Uzoma Asagwara noted the delay in opening the operating room, which was initially announced to open in December 2022, resulted in at least 171 cancelled surgeries at Concordia between November 2022 and January 2023.

“This comes after seven years of PC health care cuts in northeast Winnipeg — the premier shuttered the Concordia Hospital Emergency Room and CancerCare Clinic, and cut community IV services without notice to patients in the middle of the pandemic,” Asagwara said in a statement.