By Angela Hill

Operating room set to open

Jan 31, 2011 | 1:29 PM

Victoria Hospital is set to see a fourth operating room open in the next eight to 10 weeks.

This comes as the provincial Ministry of Health announces $105,000 for the renovation and equipment required.

“It’s great news, it’s very exciting for us, we’ve been waiting a long time,” said Carol Gregoryk, vice-president of integrated health services for the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region.

“We’ve been doing proposals for a lot of years and haven’t gotten positive results. It’s great to have positive news.”

The fourth operating room has been used as storage for sterile supplies because the money wasn’t there to complete the renovation.

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“The whole expansion in that area was a phase approach, several years ago, that (never had) funding approved, so it just sat there,” Gregoryk said.

The three current operating rooms are always running at full capacity with the 17 surgeons and specialists in the region, including the new orthopaedic surgeon who started in November.

“With all of the urgent and emergent we are usually running over, every day, outside of our elective slate just to accommodate those. We need the fourth operating room just to keep that and our current surgeon complement operating safely,” Gregoryk said.

With the current staffing levels of nurses and other members of the operating room team, the region expects they will be able to complete and additional 600 surgeries per year.

These will mainly be minor surgeries such as eyes, hands, wrists and shoulders, until an additional team can be assembled.

“We are hoping and have proposals in for full staff of that fourth operating room, so that we can do whatever we can in that room,” Gregoryk said.

More help could be on the way from the province.

“As money is made available we move it out to the health regions as quick as possible,” said Don McMorris, Minister of Health.

“As we roll more money out for the surgical care initiatives, some will be put towards equipment, but the lion’s share of money will go to staffing. Some is for renovations, some is for equipment, but really the people are what make the system work.”

The ministry is looking to support regional hospitals, like Victoria hospital, with their surgical backlogs, McMorris said.

“It may not be classed as a tertiary care centre, but I can tell you that it is a major facility within our overall provincial program.”

ahill@panow.com