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- Talk
- 09/06/2022
- CANADA
Rising to The Challenge: Ontario's COVID Backlog
Description
The presentation begins with Jeremy Hall, the past president of the Ontario Orthopedic Association, discussing the significant backlog of healthcare services resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, which currently stands at 22 million backlogged procedures, including 60,000 orthopedic cases. He outlines how his organization developed a framework to facilitate safe orthopedic operations amidst pandemic restrictions, emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary oversight in prioritizing surgical cases, especially those involving urgent needs like neurosurgery and cancer treatment.
Hall presents several strategies employed to continue providing orthopedic care during this crisis, including evidence-based recommendations for screening, the use of regional anesthesia to minimize intubation risks, and a shift towards day surgeries to cope with hospital resource limitations. Despite these efforts, he notes the systemic challenges, including the delay faced by patients with significant medical co-morbidities. In response to the pandemic, the FastTrack Care initiative was launched to engage patients and advocate for their needs directly with policymakers.
Through media appearances and direct dialogues with the Ministry of Health, Hall explains the importance of orthopedic care and advocates for ongoing improvements in healthcare delivery, including virtual perioperative assessments to streamline surgical processes and minimize patient wait times. He discusses the need for refining resource allocation across multiple surgical specialties to manage the backlog and emphasizes ongoing challenges such as surgeon burnout, competition for surgical attention between different specialties, and the impact of COVID-19 on post-operative rehabilitation.
Finally, Hall highlights future plans, including increased residency training in orthopedic surgery and the potential benefits of ambulatory surgical centers. He expresses hope for the adoption of virtual assessments in patient care as part of a long-term strategy to address the systemic challenges highlighted during the pandemic. The session concludes with an invitation to a forthcoming event in Toronto, signaling ongoing engagement within the orthopedic community.