More Surgeries Postponed

By 250 News

For the second straight day, Prince George Regional Hospital has had to advise some patients that their elective surgeries have been postponed.  The hospital is facing a higher than anticipated demand for urgent and emergency surgeries so another 4 elective surgeries scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) have been postponed.

Director of Patient Care Services, Anne Cook, says there is no easy answer  as to why this happened,  but they have had more numbers of patients with urgent surgical needs than they had anticipated.  Although day-surgeries were allowed to proceed, any elective procedure which required a hospital stay had to be cancelled  8 such cases were cancelled today a further 4 cancelled for tomorrow. 

"We are really trying to be responsible to our patients" says Cook,  who adds "we could not guarantee there would be a bed for that surgical patient's recovery."  Cook says it is important a surgical patient has adequate time to recover in hospital rather than rush them home only to find they need to be readmitted later because of complications.

The situation will be reviewed again tomorrow to see what the status may be for those booked for elective surgery on Friday.  "My advice" says Cook "is that patients plan to come for their surgery unless they have been advised otherwise by their physician or the Hospital."

As for those who have been "bumped",  Cook says it will be up to the surgeon involved to decide how quickly the patient  needs to be worked back on to the surgical slate.

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