London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) shared an update Wednesday afternoon on surgery wait times. “We’re doing more surgeries, training more staff and adding more space,” said Jerry Plastino, VP of surgery at LHSC. “We’re using new funding to reduce wait times for our community.” LHSC says that as of February, it has reduced the number of patients waiting for surgery by 19 per cent, compared to pre-pandemic levels. “That improvement did not happen by accident,” said Plastino. “It comes from focused work, adding operating rooms time to priority areas like cancer, brain, spine, and pediatric cases.” LHSC says it reduced its “surgical waitlist” by increasing surgical capacity. “Since 2023-24 LHSC has added an average of 2,000 operating room hours across our Victoria Children’s and University hospitals,” said Plastino. He explains LHSC plans to expand surgical capacity at the Nazem Kadri Surgical Centre. “What this does in plain terms is it will move lower complexity surgeries into a dedicated space,” he said. “That frees up space at our main campuses for surgeries that can only be done there like complex spine or cancer cases.” Hospital Supervisor David Musyj says while LHSC will continue to work to reduce wait times, support from its regional partners is crucial. “Them being able to continue to increase their capacity and work on their wait times helps the whole system and helps LHSC get to the more critical cases,” said Musyj.
