Dobbs: Elective surgeries in Miss. delayed, beginning Dec. 15
Published 11:28 am Friday, December 11, 2020
The rippling effect of the pandemic is hitting non-COVID-19 patients hard.
Friday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted ’beginning next Tues(day) elective surgeries that require hospitalization must be delayed – statewide.’
An elective surgery means that the surgery can be scheduled in advance, Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) says. It may be a surgery you choose to have for a better quality of life, but not for a life-threatening condition. But in some cases it may be for a serious condition such as cancer. There are three categories of elective surgery; non-urgent, semi-urgent and urgent, experts advise.
Dobbs’ tweet is specifically referring to elective surgeries that ‘require hospitalization,’ such as a mastectomy for breast cancer or having kidney stones removed.
Mississippi reportedly joins neighboring states of Louisiana, Tennessee and Alabama in postponing elective surgeries due to the unnerving number of new Coronavirus cases and deaths.
This news comes as Governor Reeves latest executive order goes into effect 5pm Friday, increasing the number of counties under a mask mandate and tightening restrictions on social gatherings.
Mississippi State Department of Health last reported 2,283 new cases of COVID-19 in Mississippi, 42 deaths, and 209 ongoing outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
In an effort to conserve critical hospital resources and slow the spread of the virus, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also released guidelines on what elective surgeries should proceed.
