Called “the best kept secret in medicine,” interventional radiology has become a cornerstone of patient care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC).

One of medicine’s most exciting and innovative specialties, interventional radiology can rapidly diagnose and treat life-threatening health conditions. The minimally invasive treatment can result in an overall reduction in recovery time with less trauma to the patient.

Dr. Fady Abdelsayed is one of four interventional radiologists at PRHC who perform up to 6,000 of the procedures every year.

“In interventional radiology we use real-time imaging — radiology — to find and correct, or intervene in, health conditions,” Dr. Abdelsayed explains. “We use CT scans, fluoroscopy, or ultrasound to steer needles, guidewires, and catheters into tiny incisions in the skin or through blood vessels to perform a procedure.”

Interventional radiology can find and treat problems just about anywhere in the body, all through a tiny opening. It can be used to drain infections, perform biopsies on organs, unblock arteries outside the heart, stop bleeding from an injured blood vessel or blood flow to a tumour, drain blocked kidneys and bile ducts, and more.

“It’s remarkable how many different things we can do,” Dr. Abdelsayed says. “We use it during scheduled procedures and in emergencies. It’s helpful for a wide range of health conditions and patients. If a patient has an infection, we might use interventional radiology to drain it. For cancer, we might use it to do a biopsy or even deliver targeted medicine directly to a tumour. For bleeding, we might use it to stop the hemorrhage.”

“It can also be a safer and faster option for patients for whom conventional surgery is too high risk, including many of the estimated 60,000 seniors in PRHC’s catchment area,” he adds.

VIDEO: PRHC’s Dr. Fady Abdelsayed explains interventional radiology

“It helps us innovate and push the boundaries of what we can do for patients,” Dr. Abdelsayed says. “It often lets us quickly give a patient relief from pain or help get them a diagnosis sooner. Because it’s minimally invasive, patients often experience an overall reduction in recovery time with less trauma.”

“We can help treat patients from almost every area of the hospital, including the intensive care unit, dialysis, the operating room, the cancer care clinic, and the emergency department,” he says.

A leader among Ontario’s community hospitals in delivering a wide range of interventional radiology services, PRHC is one of the busiest interventional radiology centres outside of downtown Toronto. As a regional referral program for interventional radiology, the hospital is the hub of care for a catchment area of 300,000 people, including patients from Haliburton, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Peterborough, and North Hastings County.

“But the two suites where we perform these procedures were built 13 years ago,” Dr. Abdelsayed points out. “They’re too small to fit the medical personnel and state-of-the-art equipment we need to expand and offer this care to more patients.”

“Our facilities are in constant use and the need is only growing,” says Lesley Heighway, PRHC Foundation President and CEO. “Because the government doesn’t fund equipment, our hospital is counting on your donations. Your support will help PRHC’s healthcare professionals provide patients with the very best care — close to home.”

Donations to the PRHC Foundation will allow the hospital to renovate and expand its two existing interventional radiology suites and add a new step-down unit, as well as outfit all three with state-of-the-art, high-resolution imaging technologies, while also expanding the recovery room.

“We will be able to see more clearly, our radiation dose to the patient would be decreased, and we would be able to expand our services,” Dr. Abdelsayed explains.

“We all want to give our patients the best care possible, but the government funds only a portion of the hospital’s costs,” says Dr. Abdelsayed. “So we’re very grateful to our community for helping us by donating to the PRHC Foundation.”

For more information or to support this needed investment in the future of healthcare at our regional hospital, visit the PRHC Foundation’s website at prhcfoundation.ca or call 705-876-5000.

This story was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation.

Peterborough Public Health is hosting two walk-in clinics this week at the Healthy Planet Arena (911 Monaghan Rd., Peterborough) for residents 70 years of age and older who have experienced difficulty booking an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.

The first walk-in clinic on Thursday (December 30) will be for residents 80 and over, with the second walk-in clinic on Saturday (January 1) for residents aged 70 to 79.

Walk-ins for both clinics will be staggered based on the first letter of a resident’s last name, with residents whose last name begins with A to J asked to arrive between 1 and 2 p.m., K to R between 2 and 3 p.m., and P to Z between 3 and 4 p.m.

“Older adults in our community are at a heightened risk for complications related to a COVID-19 infection compared to the younger population,” says medical officer of health Dr. Thomas Piggott in a media release. “It is very important that we provide these residents with every opportunity to receive a booster dose.”

Regardless of age, people must wait at least 84 days (12 weeks or 3 months) after their second dose before they are able to receive a booster dose.

Anyone attending these walk-in clinics will receive the Moderna vaccine for their booster dose, as there is a shortage of Pfizer vaccines across the province.

“The best third dose is the first one you can get, even if that means changing the mRNA vaccine brand that you previously received,” Dr. Piggott says. “I personally received the Moderna vaccine. It is an excellent vaccine along with the Pfizer vaccine.”

Only residents aged 70 and over are eligible for these two walk-in clinics. All other clinics are by appointment only. Residents not eligible for the two walk-in clinics must book an appointment for their booster dose through the provincial booking system online at covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine/ or by calling 1-833-943-3900.

Two people have been treated and released from hospital following an early morning fire in Bancroft on Boxing Day.

At 4 a.m. on Sunday (December 26), the Bancroft OPP and the Bancroft Fire Department responded to a fire in an apartment building on Station Street.

All occupants were evacuated from the building, and two people were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. They have since been released.

All the occupants have been assisted by the Canadian Red Cross.

The OPP Forensic Identification Unit, OPP Crime Unit, and the Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management are assisting with the fire investigation.

Police are asking anyone with information about this incident to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.

The Kinsmen Club of Peterborough and the Peterborough Police Services Board have respectively donated $50,000 and $10,000 to support a new mobile mental health and addictions clinic for the greater Kawartha regions.

The Canadian Mental Health Association Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (CMHA HKPR) will be overseeing the new clinic, which will include a multidisciplinary team of mental health and addictions service providers, as well as social workers and nurse practitioners.

Launching in 2022, the clinic will operate within a custom-built retrofitted bus, travelling across Peterborough County, the City of Kawartha Lakes, and Northumberland and Haliburton counties. The clinic will deliver a wide range of services, including intake and brief services, referrals to existing services, and psychiatric support and follow-up.

As a mobile clinic for rural and remote communities, it will reduce the need for people to travel to find services and will be able to serve more clients in more places.

The $50,000 donation from the Kinsmen Club of Peterborough comes from the Kinsmen Super TV Bingo, which runs on Saturday evenings. The $10,000 donation from the Peterborough Police Services Board comes from the board’s auction fund.

The new mobile mental health and addictions clinic for the greater Kawarthas region is one of four new mobile mental health clinics being supported by the Ontario government as announced in the 2021 budget, which committed $175 million in new annualized funding to expand and enhance mental health and addictions services.

With Ontario reporting a record-high 9,571 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (December 24), a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health has issued a statement.

“The day after Quebec reported over 9,000 cases in a single day, Ontario has done the same,” reads the statement from Alexandra Hilkene, press secretary to health minister Christine Elliott.

“Due to the highly-transmissible nature of the Omicron variant, it was expected that case numbers would increase in the winter months. We expect they will continue to increase over the coming days and weeks, as other jurisdictions are seeing similar case rate increases per capita.”

“While the province’s ICUs continue to remain stable, we expect the number of admissions to rise in the coming weeks as Omicron spreads, particularly among the unvaccinated. To date, the effectiveness of vaccines has meant that despite a rapid increase in cases, we have not seen a corresponding increase in hospitalizations and ICU admissions.”

“Investments in Ontario’s hospital capacity have resulted in 600 ICU beds being immediately available with nearly 500 more ICU beds available for surge capacity if required. Ontario is ready for an increase in hospital and ICU admissions as we accelerate the booster rollout.”

“Vaccines remain the best protection against Omicron, and Ontario continues to urgently ramp up its capacity to administer COVID-19 vaccines, with over 253,000 doses administered Wednesday. As the province continues to administer booster doses to all Ontarians 18 and older over the coming days and weeks, the province has put in place additional public health and workplace safety measures, such as capacity and social gathering limits, that will help to curb transmission and continue to safeguard Ontario’s hospital and ICU capacity.”

“The coming days and weeks will require ongoing vigilance. This holiday season, please celebrate safely, get vaccinated and follow the public health measures that we know work and have protected us over the last 20 months. The Chief Medical Officer of Health will continue to review the data and evidence and our government will act as necessary to protect our health care system and the health and safety of Ontarians.”

Friday’s increase of 9,571 cases is 3,781 higher than Thursday’s case count of 5,790, which was already by far the most cases ever reported in a single day in Ontario since the pandemic began.

Most of Friday’s new cases are in larger urban centres including Toronto (2,456), Peel (1,113), Halton (745), Ottawa (624), York (604), Hamilton (487), Middlesex-London (379), and Durham (349).
However, every region of the province is reporting at least 10 cases.

In the greater Kawarthas region, Peterborough is reporting 113 new cases, Hastings Prince Edward is reporting 105, and Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District is reporting 60.

Over the next four days, the province will not be issuing updates due to the holidays. The next provincial update will be next Wednesday (December 29), when cases from December 25 to 28 will also be reported.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for a wintry mix of weather in the northern Kawarthas region for late Christmas Eve into Christmas Day.

The special weather statement is in effect for northern Peterborough County, northern Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, and northern Hastings County.

A warm front associated with a low pressure system is expected to sweep through the region on Christmas Eve and slowly progress eastward on Christmas Day.

Precipitation associated with the front is expected to begin Friday evening or overnight as snow or ice pellets, before transitioning over to freezing rain or freezing drizzle. Some communities may even see rain during the transition. Untreated roads may become slippery and drivers are urged to exercise caution.

Environment Canada says there is still some uncertainty regarding the timing and duration of the potential freezing rain. Freezing rain or freezing drizzle advisories may be issued later as the event draws nearer.

The freezing rain risk is expected to end Christmas morning for most communities, as temperatures rise well above freezing. There’s a good chance of rain throughout Christmas Day.

Four restaurants in Peterborough have decided to temporarily close this week due to COVID-19.

On Tuesday (December 21), Rare restaurant at 166 Brock Street announced they are closing after they were notified a guest who dined at the restaurant on December 14 has tested positive for COVID-19.

“We have not yet been contacted by Peterborough Public Health, but Tyler and I have decided it best to close down the restaurant early before the holidays to allow our staff time to self monitor for symptoms and get tested if needed,” writes co-owner Kassy Scott on social media.

Using their contact tracing information, Rare has contacted all diners who were at the restaurant on December 14, and has cancelled all reservations for the remainder of the week. They will be reopening next Tuesday (December 28).

“Instead of feeling sad about it we are going to try to look at it as time off we wouldn’t have had with our kids,” Kassy writes. “We will look forward to feeding you again soon!”

On Wednesday (December 22), One Fine Food at 800 Erskine Avenue announced on social media they are closing until further notice, “due to a COVID-19 close contact in the restaurant and an abundance of caution.”

On Thursday (December 23), Capra Toro at 139 Hunter Street West announced they “proactively” closed the restaurant as of December 22.

“We were informed that one of our team members may have been in close contact with a positive COVID case outside our restaurant,” they write on social media. “We feel it is safest to close our doors preemptively until we have their test results and guidance from public health to reopen in a safe manner.”

The restaurant says it is contacting all guests who have dined there recently to inform them of the situation.

Also on Thursday, The Night Kitchen at 168 Hunter Street West announced they were closing at least for the day.

“One of our employees has come into close contact with a positive rapid test roommate,” they write on social media. “Out of an abundance of caution we have decided to close.”