Children’s Hospital surgery waits slashed by one-quarter over last year

Faster surgery access at Children’s Hospital in London is expected to continue reducing wait times, which have been slashed by more than one-quarter over the last year for young Southwestern Ontario patients, officials say.

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Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Center (LHSC) reduced the surgery wait-list by increasing capacity in the operating room and efficiency in its so-called minor procedure rooms: The wait-list has been cut by 26 per cent thanks to a share of $330 million the federal government spent last summer to expand children’s health care provincewide.

Children’s Hospital received $14.2 million, and $3.3 million was directed to surgical enhancements, such as new equipment for minor procedures.

“With (the extra money) we’ve been able to get our waitlist down substantially,” said Dr. Andreana Bütter, division head of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital, which is at Victoria Hospital.

“We don’t want any children waiting unnecessarily for surgery. We will continue to require this additional funding and continue to maintain this momentum we have with increased operating room time and increased minor procedure room time.”

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The wait-list for children’s surgeries in London has dropped to 720 from 1,100, one official, Catherine Delaney, said, adding more than half of kids now get their surgeries within the government-set timeline targets – up from only 44 per hundred one year ago.

The hospital runs three to five operating rooms daily. With the funding, roughly two were added weekly, resulting in hundreds of extra surgeries this year, and that’s not including smaller surgeries in the minor procedure room, Bütter said.

That minor procedure room was opened amid the COVID-19 pandemic for patients waiting for less-invasive procedures in a sterile setting outside of a traditional operating room. About 90 to 120 children are seen monthly in it.

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About 3,600 minor procedures — such as ear tubes, commonly for children with recurrent ear infections, removal of cysts and moles, and examination under anesthesia — have been performed in the last three-and-a-half years, “diverting” 1,600 out of the operating room to allow OR focus on children with more severe cases, Delaney said.

Wait-lists are categorized by urgency, Delaney said, and the longer waits are usually for minor procedures.

Part of the federal funding is also being used to optimize access to care, like a dedicated child and adolescent mental health team in the emergency department, expansion of child and adolescent eating disorders services, and growth of Children’s Hospital’s pain program.

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