Adjustment to services at St. Mary’s
On April 9, St. Mary’s received direction from Ontario Health to start ramping down surgeries and non-urgent services next week to ensure we have the capacity to treat a growing number of COVID-19 patients.
The direction comes as we are seeing an increasing number of patients in wave three, particularly those of who have the new variants COVID and that require more intensive care and higher numbers of hospitalizations among younger people.
“Making the decision to postpone surgeries is something we take very seriously,” said St. Mary’s President Lee Fairclough. “We understand that this will have a significant impact on our patients and their loved ones, and we will weigh the choices carefully.”
What this will mean in the next few days for SMGH:
- We will maintain all services for urgent or emergent care
- We will reduce some scheduled and elective procedures that require inpatient stay or use of critical care starting on Monday.
- Patients will be contacted starting this weekend if this is the case
We are reviewing closely our other services and day procedures and will be making the adjustments in the coming days
The determination of the urgency of procedures, and what can be safely deferred will be decided by St. Mary’s clinical teams. Patients who have a date for a procedure or surgery should plan to attend their appointment as scheduled. Patients will be notified directly, starting this weekend, if their surgery or appointment has been rescheduled.
This decision will be made by the patient’s clinical team and will be based on individual circumstances.
In collaboration with other health care organizations in our region, we will continue to adjust critical care and acute care beds as required.
St. Mary’s Emergency Department remains fully operational and a safe place to receive care.
Thank you for your ongoing understanding as we work through this most recent wave of the pandemi