PEMBROKE – Exciting things are happening at Pembroke Regional Hospital as our region’s three new orthopaedic surgeons have been busy setting up and settling into their new offices and are now preparing to meet their first patients.
Dr. Christopher de Jesus, Dr. Natasha Holder and Dr. Ingrid Radovanovic will start seeing patients in their Tower C offices in December and will commence surgeries at PRH in January.
In preparation for this, all family physicians in the region have been made aware of the referral process for orthopaedics. Just like other specialties, all patients who need to be seen by an orthopaedic surgeon will be referred by either their family physician or by a physician in one of Renfrew County’s emergency departments.
Previously, anyone presenting at one of the region’s emergency departments with an injury requiring orthopaedic consultation was referred directly to Ottawa. Now, high quality, orthopaedic care and 24/7 orthopaedic coverage will be available right in our community, representing a huge leap forward in terms of local health care advancements and great news for everyone.
The majority of orthopaedic surgeries will now be done locally. However, there will still be some specific cases that may require surgical referral to Ottawa such as complex medical issues or paediatric surgeries.
“So far there has been very good response from the family physicians and the patients are very happy to hear that they will be having their appointments and surgery scheduled close to home,” said Francois Lemaire, Vice-President of Patient Services – Acute Care and Chief Nursing Executive. “With the surgical component soon in place, the community will be well served with a comprehensive, integrated service within Renfrew County.”
Mr. Lemaire added that PRH will be meeting with other hospitals in the region in order to ensure their expectations for a county-wide orthopaedic program are met.
Beth Brownlee, Director of Medical, Rehabilitation and Ambulatory programs at Pembroke Regional Hospital said that having a well established outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation program, as well as complementary services such as pre-op assessment, total joint assessment and post-operative services has always enabled the hospital’s health care team to support patients before as well as after their surgery.
“The addition of the surgical component now means that the majority of our patients won’t have to travel to Ottawa for any aspect of their care,” she said.
