Surgeries cancelled as nurses ring alarm
Younger patients struggling to breathe as IH reports its largest-ever one-day jump: 376
COVID-19 infections in the Central Okanagan continue to cancel surgeries at Kelowna General Hospital.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix confirmed 50 surgeries in the coming week at KGH have now been cancelled due to both the growing number of patients being treated for COVID-19 at the hospital and the impact the virus is having on hospital staff.
Speaking Thursday while announcing that all longterm and assisted care centre workers in B.C. will now be required to be immunized against the virus, Dix was asked about the situation at KGH.
“There has been the cancellation of a small number of surgeries. I think 50 coming over the coming week in terms of cancellations of surgeries at Kelowna General Hospital, and that reflects the adjustments we make all the time based on the circumstances we see,” said Dix. “When you have circumstances such as people off sick, in terms of COVID-19, that has an impact as well.”
He said nurses are being moved into the hospital’s emergency department to help people deal with the current heatwave, the heavy smoke from wildfires and COVID. Recently, local doctors took to social media to publicly lament the surgical cancellations, noting beds are filling up at the hospital with COVID patients who are not vaccinated.
A nurse at KGH recently painted a graphic picture of what it's like in a Facebook post. Melanie Cisecki said she went in to work her usual night shift on the cardiac ward, but was moved to the emergency room to help deal with COVID patients there.
“Each of these (patients) was struggling to breathe, with high flow oxygen machines helping. Even with this, the nurses could barely keep their oxygen levels up. These (patients) were not elderly!! 20s 30s and 40s, all with the same unvaccinated status,” she wrote.
“Nurses are tired! We are running out of space and choices will have to be made. … I would not want to be the people who decide what (patients) will get surgery due to limited resources.”
Dr. Sue Pollock, acting chief medical health officer for IH, said there have been 1,800 reported COVID-19 cases since July 1 in the Central Okanagan, with 41 people hospitalized. The majority of the cases and hospitalizations are among people who are not vaccinated or who have only had one dose of vaccine, she said.
The Ministry of Health reported Friday there were 376 new COVID-19 cases in the Interior Health region, bringing the total number of active cases to 2,446. The health region with the second largest number of cases is Fraser health with 821 active cases and 140 new infections.
The most one-day cases reported in IH previously was 125 on April 10 during the third wave.
No new deaths were reported on Friday.
Last fall, the province announced a surgical renewal plan to try and address the number of surgeries cancelled due to the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.
Dix said despite the latest cancellations, he feels that plan is working as KGH, along with Vernon Jubilee Hospital and Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, are all doing more surgeries than they were before.