www.lwdh.on.ca
Local patients are expected to benefit with the expansion of the spinal surgery program.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has partnered with Lake of the Woods District Hospital to bring the service to Kenora.
The move will ensure local patients receive surgical care and successfully recover closer to home and help eliminate COVID barriers such as travel, accommodation and care-giving.
Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. David Puskas says working together has enabled patients suffering from spinal injury to receive surgical care and successfully recover closer to home.
Dr. Travis Marion adds it’s better for patients, the family who are looking after them and the recovery process.
Kenora Hospital President and CEO Ray Racette says they are very pleased to be selected as a spinal surgery site, noting it’s critically important for people to stay close to home as well as reduce long wait times for the surgery.
Officials says the expansion was a collaborative approach that included leadership teams from both hospitals, surgeons, anaesthetists, surgical nurses as well as the Northwest Local Health Integration Network and Ontario Health who developed a creative funding model to help clear the surgical backlogs created by the pandemic.
The surgery is already being carried out at the Kenora hospital.
