Health Authority says surgery backlog is 80 per cent dealt with
QEII operating rooms have been operating at full capacity for a month
The Nova Scotia Health Authority says 80 per cent of the surgeries cancelled because of problems with sterilization equipment have been completed or re-scheduled.
A spokesman for the authority says Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre operating rooms have been running at full capacity for close to a month. Between 100 and 120 surgeries are completed a day.
Everton McLean says with the limited supply of sterilized equipment, any problems with it — for instance if a wrapper is broken — could affect whether an surgery goes ahead, because there might not be a replacement kit on hand.
He also says surgeries may be cancelled for other reasons, such as bumping for emergency room patients. But he says since early May there have been "very few cancellations."
Problems with the hospital's sterilization equipment between April 20 and May 5 led to a backlog of 563 surgeries.
McLean says there's no specific date when the approximately 110 surgeries will all be completed.
The health authority planned to use operating rooms in Dartmouth General and Hants Community hospital as well as Scotia Surgeries' private facilities to tackle the delayed surgeries.
The Halifax Infirmary will get a new $500,000 sterilization system to replace malfunctioning equipment that has caused the backlog.