Concordia surgical capacity increasing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/04/2022 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concordia Hospital has long been Manitoba’s leading site for joint replacement surgeries, including hips and knees. Recently, this leading role has been further cemented by another investment by our government with the addition of a fifth operating room and funding for an additional 1,000 hip and knee replacements each year.

Prior to this announcement, Manitoba had already increased the number of hip and knee replacement surgeries by more than any other province except British Columbia over the past five years (source: CIHI Canadian Institute for Health Information). With this announcement, we should be solidly in first place.

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic required resources to be shifted away from surgical units such as those at Concordia in order to increase intensive-care unit and hospital capacity.

That’s not to say COVID-19 is over. In some sense, it never will be. Today, every Influenza-A type flu virus is essentially a variant of the 1918 Spanish flu. In the same way, variants of COVID-19 will continue to spread in the months and years to come. The most likely COVID-19 variants to spread are those that can successfully infect vaccinated or naturally immune individuals. Omicron is one such variant. We continue to monitor the impact of these variants on our health-care system, both through hospital and ICU admissions and staff absentee rates.

Operating room capacity should be back to normal very soon. Hip and knee replacements have profound benefits on patients’ quality of life and overall health, so it is particularly encouraging to see additional capacity being added moving forward.

Of course, patients are waiting for more than just hip and knee replacements. That’s why the Diagnostic and Surgical Recovery Task Force, led by Dr. Peter MacDonald, is taking a multi-pronged approach. Its action plan includes increased capacity for CT scans, ultrasounds, and MRIs, as well as spinal surgeries, spinal assessments, hip and knee replacements, gynecological surgeries, colon cancer screening, and training for new health care staff like anesthesia clinical assistants. They are committed to providing monthly updates. You can follow along with them on my Facebook page at facebook.com/TeitsmaForRadisson or at www.gov.mb.ca/health/dsrecovery

If you have any questions about this article or otherwise need assistance, you can always contact my office at 204-691-7976 or by email at office@jamesteitsma.ca