Horizon Health Network will be using operating rooms in Fredericton, Moncton, Miramichi and Saint John on Saturdays to perform surgical “blitzes” to reduce the growing wait list for orthopedic surgeries.
The goal is to perform between 12 and 16 surgeries, which is the number normally done over the course of one month, each Saturday in addition to the surgeries normally performed during the week.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch likened the process to race car pit stops while speaking to reporters on Thursday.
“There’s a group of coordinated health-care workers who will go in and do the operation, turn the room over very quickly and have another patient,” he said.
During a press conference on Thursday, Horizon Health Interim President and CEO Margaret Melanson said the project would be staffed by current employees through voluntary overtime.
“Our hope is that we will have a rotation of staff and others that will join in the weeks and months ahead to assist with this project. (…) It’s certainly not something that we are pressuring individuals into and there’s personal choice involved in participation,” she said.
Melanson said this will not affect the emergency room staff as emergency rooms and operating rooms are staffed by different teams.
Amy McCavour, Horizon’s executive regional director and co-leader of surgical and intensive care, said that this initiative was focused on those who have been on the waiting list the longest, and who could be discharged from the hospital within 24 hours.
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There are currently over 2,000 Horizon patients on the waiting list for knee and hip replacements, 700 of which have been on the waiting list for over a year.
The national benchmark for knee and hip replacements is roughly six months.
Between surgery and staffing costs, the project will cost the province roughly half a million dollars.
The project starts on Saturday and will continue until the end of February, at which point Melanson said there is a chance it could continue.
“We’ll certainly be assessing it and reevaluating the outcomes and deciding from there whether for many reasons this is viable for us to continue,” she said.
Horizon is hoping to perform up to 96 surgeries through the program.
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