Health PEI reducing some surgeries and services to maintain hospital capacity

Health PEI is reducing some non-urgent procedures and services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to ensure staff and bed capacity are available for people who may need life-saving care in the coming days. 

“Since the Omicron wave began, our staff and physicians have worked hard to keep as many services open as possible while caring for new COVID-19 patients. Unlike most of the rest of Canada, we have kept much of our health system operating through these efforts. Now, following several weeks of COVID-19 admissions, we are at a point where we need to make these reductions to be able to continue to care for the sick patients who need intensive care and to continue to offer surgeries and services to people who need them most.” 

-  Dr. Michael Gardam, Health PEI CEO

Until now, Health PEI has only rescheduled a small number of surgeries to provide staff and to maintain the capacity needed due to the additional COVID-19 patients. Those reductions will be more significant as of Friday when certain procedures such as a small number of non-urgent endoscopy, eye surgeries and elective or non-urgent surgeries will be rescheduled to a future date. 

Over the next week, we will delay approximately 40- 50 cataract surgeries and 14 of 92 other surgeries.  

All patients whose procedures are rescheduled will be contacted directly. Health PEI will reassess the reduction on at least a weekly basis and make changes as necessary to maintain ICU capacity. 

“We appreciate that all health services and procedures are very important to the patients who are to receive them, and this decision will be difficult for them to hear. Health PEI staff have done everything possible to avoid service disruptions, and we continue to only reschedule procedures where the reduction will help us maintain critical care and emergency services,” said Dr. Gardam. “Thank you to the staff who have been willing to change schedules and work routines to provide the care Islanders need right now, and to Islanders for their patience as our teams do everything possible to care for people with COVID as well as other illnesses and conditions.”

Dr. Gardam noted that while daily case counts have begun to plateau, hospitalizations tend to lag cases and the peak in hospitalizations has not yet been reached. Health PEI assesses the situation daily, and plans are adapted as needed to provide the best care possible.

Media contact:

Everton McLean

Communications, Health PEI

902-213-1507

emclean@gov.pe.ca