Key takeaways:
- Surgeons expect day surgeries will slice into a long wait list and keep bed capacity available.
- Newfoundland and Labrador hope to have 20 percent of hip or knee replacement operations down as same-day procedures by this fall.
Two cases of hip or knee replacement operation caution that the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s goal to have some procedures accomplished without a hospital stay will lead to pain — or even difficulties.
By the fall, the government seeks to have 20 percent of hip and knee replacement surgeries finished as same-day procedures. The purpose is to keep hospital beds open for other surgical patients, with waits for joint replacement surgeries among the longest in the region.
Catherine Dempsey, who had both hips replaced a few years, says her procedures and recoveries went well, but the additional time in the hospital helped.
“I had a bit of an oxygen reduction, so they stuck me in and watched me overnight,” she stated Monday.
Read more: Mount Pearl Catholics divided over which one to protect
When the second operation was done, she had a better view of what to anticipate.
“And then I learned this time that when the physiotherapist showed up and requested you to go up and down a step, they were going to send you home instantly,” she stated. “I was not pleased with that time. I felt worse after the first one, so I declined to do the step.”
Dempsey said she was released after 48 hours in the hospital instead of the calculated 36 hours at the time.
Paul Marino said he probably could have gone home after an operation to replace both knees two years ago. Still, it would have been challenging because the painkillers he was named were too weak, and being at the hospital allowed him to get something more robust.
Source – cbc.ca
