Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is touting progress made in improving access to cardiac procedures throughout the province, and now they are making moves to increase that capacity even further.
The health authority released numbers last week outlining how the number of procedures, such as cardiac surgeries, have improved over the last two years since the implementation of the Provincial Cardiovascular and Stroke Program.
Dr. Frederic Paulin, interim clinical chief of the Cardiovascular and Stroke Program, says there has been an impact on wait times as a result.
As an example, he says for cardiac surgeries two years ago there was a wait list of about 200 people. Now that number is down to about 150.
While Paulin admits that may not seem like much of a difference, the big change is the number of procedures being performed.
He says one year ago only 67 per cent of urgent isolated bypass surgeries were being completed within the recommended wait time. Now, 95 per cent are completed within that timeframe.
Moving forward, Paulin says they are going to “keep grinding on this” with a goal of getting all procedures done within the recommended benchmarks.
Paulin says there are plans in place to achieve that goal such as increased staffing, expanding their working hours, and technological advancements that will let them do some procedures faster.
