Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and are a follow-up to my Member’s statement from earlier today.
In July, I believe, the Minister made an announcement that August 12th was the date that Stanton was targeting to resume elective surgeries once they were able to confirm that the sterilization equipment was in fact working to standard. I was very optimistic that would happen and I actually hope that that did happen, but I heard a rumour that, in fact, the elective surgeries have not been recommenced as a result or due to the fact that sterilization equipment is still experiencing problems. I’d like some information from the Minister as to the status of the sterilization equipment and the status of the elective surgeries at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My information is that we targeted the 12th. As of August 15th, elective surgeries are being performed at Stanton. Thank you.
I didn’t quite hear the answer. I know the surgeries have been ongoing at Stanton during this entire process. I know that surgeries were never ceased. Emergency surgeries continued to go, it was elective surgeries. I didn’t hear whether the Minister said elective surgeries. So just for clarification, did the Minister say that elective surgeries are once again occurring to full capacity at Stanton? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, Mr. Speaker.
That’s fantastic news. I’m very happy to hear that.
The second part of this issue is the fact that there were well over 200 elective surgeries cancelled over the last couple of months, basically since January when all of these issues started to come up. I’m curious what type of communication plan or what kind of implementation plan Stanton is putting in place to get this backlog of elective surgeries through the system as quickly as possible.
The reason this is important, Mr. Speaker, is there are costs to people, their health, their livelihood, all of these things are affected by these potential surgeries that these individuals need to have. I think we owe it to our constituents and our residents to get them through these surgeries as quickly as possible, to help them get back to activities of daily living and normal living. So what is the process that they are going to follow to get these people through these elective surgeries in a timely manner?
Earlier in the winter there was over 360 surgeries of backlog, and since July we’ve whittled that number down to 102. I agree with the Member, we want to do this as quickly and expeditiously as possible, to let people get their lives back as quickly as possible. So now that we are back up to doing full surgeries, elective surgeries, I’m confident that list will be whittled down with even more alacrity and expediency. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very happy that the Minister agrees; that’s good. My question was more along the lines of what is the communications plan. What is the action plan to make this happen? There are 102 surgeries on top of all the surgeries that are already booked. How are we going to fit those 102 in? What are we going to do? What’s the plan?
We have professionals, capable individuals that manage the scheduling of the operating rooms, that look at the schedules, the wait lists, what is elective and what’s emergency, and they are doing all the things necessary. They’ve done a very good job, I would suggest, given the fact that we were struggling with some of the sterilization issues up until recently, and that that rate will increase as we pick away at that backlog now that the operating rooms are functional. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
