Elective surgeries to resume at Lions Gate Hospital

Elective surgeries that were put on hold at Lions Gate Hospital while staff were needed to care for a “third wave” of COVID patients in April are expected to resume soon.

The province announced it was halting some surgeries at Lower Mainland hospitals at the end of April in order to conserve staff to care for hospitalized COVID patients.

At Lions Gate Hospital, that resulted in 300 postponed surgeries, according to Vancouver Coastal Health. That’s about 18 per cent of all scheduled surgeries. In the same time period, 1,399 elective surgeries went ahead, according to VCH, with 45 per cent of those surgeries considered urgent.

According to a Ministry of Health PowerPoint presentation, surgeries had been suspended in three operating rooms at Lions Gate, but have since been re-started in two North Shore operating rooms this week. A full re-opening of operating rooms, which will include eight regular operating rooms at Lions Gate, is expected by June 7.

Patients needing the most urgent surgeries will have their surgery re-booked first.

According to the health authority, as of March 31, hospitals in the Vancouver Coastal Health area had caught up to 94 per cent of surgeries postponed last spring during the first wave of the pandemic.

Across B.C., the province has caught up to 97 per cent of the approximately 15,100 surgeries cancelled during the first wave of the pandemic last spring.