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The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) says some surgeries are being postponed after Saskatoon’s local medical health officer declared last week that the city is an area of elevated activity for COVID-19.
In a release sent to 650 CKOM, the SHA’s chief medical officer, Dr. Susan Shaw, says there wasn’t a planned slowdown of surgical procedures, but as a result of the declaration, a geography-based COVID activity screening criteria was activated and that resulted in 97 non-urgent or elective surgeries in Saskatoon being postponed since Oct. 9.
The release also says 470 surgeries are continuing as scheduled this week in Saskatoon.
Texters on Friday morning expressed some frustration with the situation.
“I’m in need of lung testing and they can’t do it in the name of COVID because it’s a breathing test, meanwhile I’m getting nowhere for my health,” said a very frustrated Julie Carlyle.
Sue in Saskatoon said: “I finally got my total knee replacement four weeks ago. In order to ensure and continue with my recovery, I need access to the excellent post-op physiotherapy I was getting from the SHA at City Hospital. Last week my post-op physio help was cancelled due to the uptick in COVID cases. This is a necessary service the patients need to get back to a normal function of life.
“I personally need this physiotherapy as I am encountering a complication. I finally got a new appointment scheduled after hounding them frequently. I question the SHA for perhaps shutting down services way too quickly. These services are critical to recovering patients like me.”
The release says the Saskatoon declaration was made due to a large number of new COVID-19 cases that do not have a known source of virus acquisition or transmission.
The SHA says all patients, visitors and staff must be screened when entering any SHA facility, which then triggers several additional safety protocols in order to reduce the risk of transmission to patients and staff.
The release says with Saskatoon being declared an “area (of) elevated activity,” residents are automatically treated as if they have tested positive. As a result of protocols, some residents have had their non-urgent elective surgeries postponed this past week.
The SHA says people who have surgeries that are affected are being contacted directly by either their doctor or Saskatoon’s surgical scheduling office. It says postponed surgeries will be rescheduled as soon as possible.
At a campaign event near Saskatoon on Friday morning, Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe commented on the situation with surgeries in Saskatoon.
“This is one of the effects of COVID-19 is ensuring our health-care system is up and servicing the broader population in a way that we would expect,” he said.
