OAC Supports Ontario Health Minister’s Comments re: Maintaining Patient Access to Hospital-Based Procedures During Second COVID Wave

The Ontario Association of Cardiologists is encouraged by comments made by Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott earlier this week in Question Period.  In response to a question from NDP Health Care Critic France Gelinas, Minister Elliott acknowledged the importance of maintaining patient access to hospital-based surgeries and procedures, including cardiac, during the second COVID wave.

Hon. Christine Elliott: As I indicated earlier in a previous question, the response to wave 2 is going to be more difficult and challenging than the response to wave 1 for the very reasons that you’ve outlined. We have thousands of surgeries and procedures that were postponed during wave 1 to create that capacity in our hospital system. We don’t want people to have to wait any longer for those surgeries. We know that they need them, whether they’re orthopedic surgeries, cancer surgeries, cataract surgeries or cardiac surgeries—whatever else that they need. We want that to continue. We know we need to create extra capacity in our hospital system.

source: LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO, Tuesday 15 September 2020