Northern Health set to resume elective surgeries across Northwest

The return of Elective surgeries is on the horizon at
Prince Rupert Regional Hospital and other Northwest
Hospital facilities

After a six week or so pause during the COVID emergency, Northern Health is feeling confident enough about the Northern response, that they now have announced plans to resume their elective surgery schedule at hospitals across the North.

In an announcement from Tuesday, Northern Health outlined their implementation program to assist patients in navigating the admission process and to learn more about their options.

The notification of patients who had their procedures postponed during the last few months began on Tuesday, with Northern Health officials making contact to learn the wishes of those affected.

There will be a priority list of sorts in place however, with those who require urgent, emergent or oncology related surgery to be prioritized.

As well  there will be some new measures in place as part of the return to elective surgery.

When possible, patients will be assessed through a telephone call prior to surgery 

Consistent screening tools and risk assessment guidelines will be used 

Patients will be assessed 24-72 hours prior to surgery and arrival the day of surgery 

Surgeries will be scheduled with time to accommodate additional cleaning and infection control measures.

You can learn more about the plan ahead from Northern Health here.

For more notes related to Health care in the Northwest see our archive pages here.