Orthopedic travel team successfully performs 1st surgeries on Northern Peninsula

An orthopedic travel teamperformed its first surgeries on Newfoundland'sNorthern Peninsula last week, as part of an ongoing effort to address surgical backlogs in the province.

The team, led by Eastern Health's head of orthopedics, Dr. William Moores, travelled to St. Anthony on Jan. 22 to perform 11 joint replacements overfive days at the CharlesS. Curtis Memorial Hospital.

While the number of surgeries performed might not seem significant, Moores said, even small measures help alleviate the backlog,given that about 2,000 patients are waiting for orthopedic surgeriesin the Eastern Health region alone.

"You're looking ata small dent.It's 0.5 per centbut it's 0.5 per centthat we would not have gotten done this week otherwise. Soit is a true additional resource.It's not like we robbed Peter to pay Paul here," said Moores.

"It'sa small stepbut if you don't take any small stepsyou're never going to make large improvements."

In total, nearly 3,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador are on a wait-list to have knee or hip replacement surgery.

While the national benchmark for wait times on these surgeries is 182 days, or about six months, for some patients in the provincethe wait can takeup to two years.

The new model of orthopedic travel teams wasannounced by the provincial government on Nov. 9as a new strategy to shorten wait lists for joint replacements. At the announcement, Premier Andrew Furey said travel teams could increase the number of knee and hip replacement surgeries by 300 a year.

According to the provincial government, the teamscould potentially perform up to 140 surgeries a year at the St. Anthony hospital alone.

Moores saideverything has run efficiently at the hospital, adding that it was"a good fit" for multiple reasons.

"Oftentimes, in areas like here, the [operating room]is not being utilized because they don't have access to the high volume of patients and also oftentimes, they have difficulty with recruitment ofphysicians," said Moores.

"Trying to maximize theuse of that resource was our goal, and that's been pretty seamless,to be honest. I had some reservations about how it would work with the higher volumebut itcertainly has surpassed my expectations."

Post-surgery checkups, he said, are performed by both the travel teamandstaff on site. Of those having had surgery last week, said Moores, nobody had any complications but all showed gratitude for the service.

"I have to give thanks to them forthinking outside the box, as well," he said. "In many cases, it really did expedite their time on the wait list."

While Moores said some logistical details between the different health authorities and the provincial governmentstill needto be worked out, there are plans to regularly send out orthopedic travel teams to St. Anthony.

"It would be basically a one-week blitz ororthopedic outreach, or whatever phrase you want to use, a month," said Moores, adding there would likely be a break over the summer months due tostaffingchallenges.

At the November announcement, the provincial government said that while the strategy is being tested for orthopedic surgeries first, other procedures could be added in the future, if the initiative proves successful.

Work is also underway at the Carbonear General Hospital to potentially send travel teams there in the near future.

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