Approximately 90 orthopedic surgeries that were scheduled to take place at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton have been postponed, Alberta Health Services said Wednesday.
AHS described the procedures affected as “elective” and said they include arthroplasty hip, knee, shoulder and spine cases.
AHS said the postponements were made because of “a decision by the University of Alberta School of Medicine to consolidate the on-call component of its orthopedic residency training program at the University of Alberta Hospital.”
AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said Thursday that the U of A Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry’s orthopedic surgery division “notified AHS that its residency program would consolidate residents at the University of Alberta Hospital effective July 1 to ensure the program was meeting national accreditation standards, as set by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to ensure residents are appropriately supervised during their residency.”
Because of that, AHS worked with medical and surgical leadership on alternate coverage plans, Williamson said.
“Despite the efforts of all parties, the orthopedic surgeons notified AHS that some arthroplasty surgeries at RAH will be postponed due to the reduction in post-operative support and after-hours coverage.”
AHS said it does not inform nor direct the decisions.
However, in an email to Global News, a spokesperson for the university said “clinical service delivery, including any decisions to postpone elective surgeries, is the responsibility of Alberta Health Services. The university is not able to comment on changes to the delivery of healthcare services or staffing.”
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The university is responsible, however, for “providing high-quality, accredited clinical training programs for residents.”
The U of A spokesperson said it is normal for residents to rotate through hospitals and clinical areas as part of their training and that can result in “a variable number of residents in different locations at different times.”
A spokesperson for Alberta’s health ministry said the decision to consolidate medical residents was made by the University of Alberta. “However, Alberta Health is concerned by this situation, and is reviewing options to prevent situations like this in the future,” Andrea Smith said.
AHS said it “is working hard to find alternative coverage. Urgent and emergency surgeries will continue at the site.
“We acknowledge that this is extremely frustrating to those impacted patients, and we apologize for any disruption these postponements will cause. We are working hard to get those impacted patients rescheduled as quickly as possible.”
In the Edmonton Zone, arthroplasty hip and knee surgeries are continuing at the Misericordia Community Hospital, AHS said. Arthroplasty shoulder surgeries are continuing at the Sturgeon Community Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital.
AHS said it is exploring additional orthopedic surgery capacity elsewhere.
Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, says surgical delays are difficult for patients physically and mentally.
“We know delayed care has worse outcomes, but also the mental strain of that. You’re waiting a long time, you’re ready, you’re finally going to have your surgery and last minute you’re told, ‘Never mind, it’s not happening.’ That’s frustrating, it’s exhausting and it’s bad for people’s health.”
According to Friends of Medicare, the postponements at Royal Alex, along with other surgical delays, long hospital waits and ER closures, is a symptom of larger issues with the health-care system.
Gallaway says the first is that Alberta has been in a health-care staffing crisis for some time and the provincial government needs a workforce plan to address it.
“Their plan for surgeries that involved opening many for-profit charter surgical centres has pulled workers out of our hospitals. The doctors and nurses and anesthesiologists and others we need to do surgeries have been pulled into the private system that we’re funding and out of our hospitals,” he said.
“Opening these new centres didn’t create more workers, it didn’t create more surgeons, it didn’t create more nurses. And we’re seeing the impacts of that with closures and lower capacity in our hospitals,” Gallaway said.
“We need a plan that will retain who we have right now, not pull them out of the system and then recruit and train the folks we need.”