Wait list down at LHSC Children’s Hospital OR

Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) says it has reduced its paediatric surgery wait list by 26 per cent in the past year for non-urgent and non-emergent cases.

The news follows funding from the provincial government’s ‘Make Kids Count’ initiative in July 2023.

Children’s Hospital received $14.2 million overall, with $3.3 million used to improve surgery capacity.

An additional 500 surgeries were completed in the past year, which has been a relief for stressed families said Dr. Andreana Butter, division head of paediatric surgery, Children’s Hospital.

“When I meet families and say ‘your child needs surgery, this is what it looks like,’ then right away they say ‘how long are we waiting?’ They’re kind of bracing themselves to say a year or two years, or some crazy number. And usually I can say ‘well it will be within a few weeks or less,’ and they’re always very pleasantly surprised,” she said.

Children’s Hospital also launched a minor procedure room, allowing patients to have less invasive procedures done outside of a traditional operating room.

“By taking these cases that would have been done in the OR it leaves us more time for the complex cases in the operating room,” explained Catherine Delaney, director of the children’s minor procedure room. “This also enables us to use a more efficient model where we can do a lot more cases in a short amount of time, and actually cost us less money as well.”

Funding has also been used for 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.