Elective surgeries resume as London hospital resolves ‘stain issue’ with surgical trays

The London Health Science Centre (LHSC) is set to resume elective surgeries and procedures starting Thursday after identifying an issue with stained surgical trays.

The cancellations, which were initiated Tuesday afternoon, came in response to staining seen on the hospital’s surgical trays that was identified by members of the organization’s medical device reprocessing team.

In an update released Wednesday afternoon, the organization said that the light staining originated from the steam system used to process and sterilize surgical equipment at University Hospital.

“That steam goes through a number of valves, about 20 to 30, and what we found was that there were two to three of those that needed to be replaced,” said Tammy Quigley, system innovation and business development executive at LHSC.

The light staining was seen on the liner that sits below the surgical tray holding medical tools for surgeries and procedures, according to health officials, and all trays without stains were reportedly redirected for use in urgent and emergent surgeries.

LHSC said that there were “concerns that this could impact additional sites, so we stopped processing equipment for a period of time in order to test all systems.”

Quigley, who also spoke to Global News Wednesday morning, said “the risk was quite low from a patient safety perspective” in regards to the staining, but the cancellations, which affected some scheduled procedures, were issued “out of an abundance of caution.”

“There were 148 surgeries that were cancelled between Tuesday and Wednesday,” she highlighted. “With instruments that are going inside of somebody’s body it is incredibly important that we are fully confident that they are 100 per cent sterile.”

While the issue has since been resolved, Quigley said that the team is now working to get all equipment back online and ensure that all needed sites have the necessary tools to preform all surgeries and procedures beginning Thursday.

“We understand that the pause on elective and scheduled surgeries and procedures is stressful and disappointing for our patients and caregivers,” she said. “While brief, we believe that it was necessary to investigate and ensure our patients receive the safest care possible.”

LHSC said that any patient whose procedure was impacted this week due to the investigation will be contacted by their care team as soon as possible to reschedule.

— with files from Global News’ Marshall Healey.