The Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) has received approval from the Government of Ontario to gradually resume some non-emergency and non-urgent day surgeries and procedures.

The directive to pause these services was first put in place on April 20th by the provincial government to ensure that hospitals could accommodate increasing numbers of patients requiring hospitalization from COVID-19 without being overwhelmed.
Although provincial case counts and hospitalizations remain high, they are trending downward in several communities, clearing the way for hospitals with adequate resources and capacity, including CCH, to slowly resume day procedures which don’t require patient stays.

Some examples of non-emergency and non-urgent elective day procedures could include cataracts surgeries, skin surgeries, gastrointestinal procedures, tonsillectomies, tendon and muscle repairs, etc. Emergency and urgent procedures for life threatening or urgent medical conditions were not disrupted by the provincial directive and continued throughout the third wave this spring at CCH.

It is estimated that over 2,000 patients are currently waiting for an elective procedure at CCH; however, the Hospital is confident it will be able to efficiently lower that number and catch up within the coming months, just as it has after each wave.

“We know that people could be eager or worried as they wait for surgeries,” said Jeanette Despatie, President and CEO of CCH. “We have been carefully planning to ensure we are ready to resume non-urgent and non-emergency surgeries and procedures as soon as possible, while balancing the needs and pressures of the pandemic and other clinical services,” she added.

CCH continues to operate at near capacity levels, and resumption will be gradual and carefully considered to maintain the ability to rapidly respond to increases in COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations.

“We kindly ask residents to continue following effective public health guidelines and consider getting vaccinated to help mitigate community outbreaks of COVID-19, which could quickly overwhelm our Hospital, and so we can focus on safely ramping up non-emergency day procedures and eventually non-emergency inpatient procedures,” said Despatie.

At this time, only eligible patients with a postponed surgery or procedure will be contacted by CCH to be rescheduled. Patients are encouraged to visit the CCH website at www.cornwallhospital.ca/en/surgery for the latest updates.