Patient Alert – 27th March 2020 re COVID-19

An important announcement for our patients with upcoming surgery, or those with consultations scheduled in the coming month.

On Wednesday 25th March, the government announced changes to all non-urgent elective surgeries, postponing them until further notice.The VPS team will be making contact with all of you affected by these changes to reschedule the surgery to later in the year. We understand this will be disappointing news for many of you (as well as for us) but we hold hope that these necessary measures will ensure the safety of the greater community and also of our health care workers.Category 1 and urgent Category 2 procedures will continue as planned and our surgeons will be taking advice from the governing bodies when determining which cases meet these strict criteria. Measures are being taken both by Valley Plastic Surgery and the hospitals to ensure that our patients continue to be safe and highly protected for their procedures. (For a better understanding of what defines category 1 and category 2 surges, please see the short explanation below).These above measures, along with our move to tele-health consultations, are aimed at protecting both our staff and patients during this unprecedented situation. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.Matt and Ray and VPS team

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

For surgeries scheduled prior to 1st April, 2020:

These surgeries will go ahead at the doctor’s discretion, based on a careful risk assessment of each individual case and the possible risk to clinical staff.We also take into account the expected hospital stay required for each procedure and the ensuing post-operative care.

What is a Category 1, 2 or 3 surgery?

Every patient waiting for elective surgery is assessed by their treating medical professional as Category 1, 2 or 3 per the following definitions:

• Category 1 – Needing treatment within 30 days. Has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the point where the patient’s situation may become an emergency.
• Category 2 – Needing treatment within 90 days. Their condition causes pain, dysfunction or disability. Unlikely to deteriorate quickly and unlikely to become an emergency.
• Category 3 – Needing treatment at some point in the next year. Their condition causes pain, dysfunction or disability. Unlikely to deteriorate quickly.