SickKids reduces surgeries to preserve critical care capacity

While we continue to be nimble and provide our exceptional standard of care, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) unfortunately has no choice but to reduce surgical activity for the time being to preserve our critical care capacity. This will enable us to prioritize urgent, emergency and the most time-sensitive surgeries.  Endoscopy services and image-guided therapy will also prioritize urgent and inpatient cases. Our administrative teams will be contacting families whose scheduled procedures will be affected. 

Our ICU census has been above 127 per cent capacity for several days and we have increased the number of patients with higher acuity outside of the ICU on our units. Well over half of the patients in the ICU, which includes our cardiac ICU patients, are currently on a ventilator.  

In addition, while we are working very hard and collaboratively with all our community partners, it appears that they have also reached their maximum capacity and we now find ourselves supporting our colleagues virtually to care for paediatric patients who would otherwise receive care at SickKids. 

“This decision was not taken lightly. The reduction in surgical activity will allow us to support areas of the hospital that need help managing increasing patient volumes and acuity, including the critical care units, paediatric medicine and the Emergency Department,” says Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO, SickKids. “I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone at SickKids who is going above and beyond, doing the best they can, for patients and families, and for each other, during this difficult time."