N.L. adopting more than 30 recommendations to cut surgical backlogs

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is implementing all 32 recommendations from its provincial surgical task force to cut into the list of operation backlogs.

Health Minister Tom Osborne said some recommendations are already a part of the health-care system, and the province hopes to implement the remaining ones within the next six months.

"The surgical wait-lists have been a problem now not only in Newfoundland and Labrador, but across Canada for decades. And this provides us a clear path forward in how we can work on reducing those," Osborne said Thursday.

The task force's report, released Thursday, splits the recommendations into three categories: measuring and monitoring wait-lists, improving operations and maximizing recruitment and retention of health-care professionals.

Cassie Chisholm, an N.L. Health Services vice-president, said one of the key recommendations is the creation of a centralized surgical wait-list. It's difficult to summarize the number of people waiting for surgery with a number, she said, but it's "large" — she estimated that 3,000 people are on the wait-list for joint replacement surgeries alone.

Chisholm is also part of a team creating a list of provincial operating rooms and staff who are open to overtime, which she said will ensure no room goes empty while people are waiting for surgeries.

The other recommendations include freeing up surgical hospital beds being used by patients waiting to enter long-term care homes by making beds available in those facilities and exploring the use of ambulatory surgery centres outside St. John's to provide same-day surgery care.

For example, Osborne said, a team of orthopedic surgeons who travel to St. Anthony to perform surgeries in the region will expand to begin working in Carbonear. Same-day joint replacement surgeries are also expected to begin in Corner Brook in September, he said, along with an outpatient rehab clinic in Gander.

"All of our initiatives, combined with our recruitment activities that are bringing more people into the province, will lead to a better health-care system for Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

Pat Parfrey, deputy minister and co-chair of the provincial Health Accord committee, said he values the recommendations' community-based approach.

"All those initiatives are feasible in the current system, and will actually have a big effect. But where we will have to get even more innovative … is to bring down that wait-list."

It's certainly a good first step. It's just not the last step.- Dr. Gerald Farrell

Dr. Gerald Farrell, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, praised the report's comprehensive, community-based approach but said community resources are already stretched thin.

"There's a lot of work that's going to have to be done, and we recognize that, but it's certainly a good first step. It's just not the last step," Farrell said.

"Ironically, it's almost like the entire system has been put on a wait-list because we're waiting for these recommendations to be implemented, so that we can see if it's going to impact patient care."

Farrell said addressing wait times is key. After spending 40 years working in the province, he said, it's concerning to see waiting times going up again.

"At this point in my career, I didn't think that we would be dealing with that," he said.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn said the recommendations are positive steps but he wants solid timelines for when they will be implemented. He also said he's concerned about the repurposing of care beds and wants to hear more about retention of professionals who can tend to patients in those beds.

"We have beds, we just don't have people to staff them," he said.

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