{"id":945904,"date":"2026-10-25T16:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T16:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945904\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T16:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T16:32:44","slug":"with-current-wait-times-around-four-years-chief-of-orthopaedics-wants-dedicated-centre-for-hip-and-knee-replacements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945904\/","title":{"rendered":"With Current Wait Times Around Four Years, Chief of Orthopaedics Wants Dedicated Centre for Hip and Knee Replacements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/untitled-1.jpg\" class=\"header-image\" alt=\"With Current Wait Times Around Four Years, Chief of Orthopaedics Wants Dedicated Centre for Hip and Knee Replacements\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">stockdevil_666 \/ Depositphotos.com<\/p>\n<p>The Chief of Orthopaedics in the metro region is proposing that the health authority create a dedicated centre for hip and knee surgery to help address lengthy wait times.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. William Moores says urgent action is needed with approximately 2,800 patients currently waiting up to four years for surgery.<\/p>\n<p>He says that number could balloon to 6,100 patients by 2030, given the province\u2019s aging population.<\/p>\n<p>Moores says that\u2019s a lot of people waiting a long time with pain and disability.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s suggesting that, instead of accommodating patients in a system while competing with other health care needs, that the needs of patients come first.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/divisional-head-of-orthopaedics-with-nl-health-services-dr-will-moores-premier-andrew-furey-steeve-c.jpeg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-218062\" class=\"size-full wp-image-218062\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/divisional-head-of-orthopaedics-with-nl-health-services-dr-will-moores-premier-andrew-furey-steeve-c.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-218062\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(File Photo from 2023: Divisional Head of Orthopaedics with NL Health Services, Dr. Will Moores, Former Premier Andrew Furey, and former MHA Steve Crocker.)<\/p>\n<p>Moores says it\u2019s not a new concept, with similar centres up and running in eight other provinces that \u201chave been quite successful in helping decrease wait times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He says among patients requiring hit and knee replacements, the population is fairly homogenous, \u201cso you can really design and help increase the efficiency by designing it specifically for the delivery of those several procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is really what we\u2019re proposing, a well-delivered model that exists in other provinces here in Newfoundland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moores says he\u2019s had conversations with both the current and previous governments about the concept.<\/p>\n<p>He says those conversations have been positive \u201cbut unfortunately, movement has been slow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tony-wakeham-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-310640\" class=\"size-full wp-image-310640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tony-wakeham-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-310640\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Premier Tony Wakeham (VOCM News)<\/p>\n<p>Premier says Access to Long-term Care Beds Could Help Alleviate Wait Times<\/p>\n<p>Premier Tony Wakeham admits that the current wait times for hip and knee surgeries are not acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>He says they need to get a good understanding of what\u2019s causing the backlog, but acknowledges that access to long-term care beds is a contributing factor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of times surgeries are held up, not because the surgery can\u2019t be done, it\u2019s because we have no acute care beds. On any given day there\u2019s almost 300 people\u2026in our acute care beds (who) really are waiting on long-term care beds.\u201d He says that\u2019s why government is investing in long term care beds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; stockdevil_666 \/ Depositphotos.com The Chief of Orthopaedics in the metro region is proposing that the health authority&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,269876,185074,269873,269875,269877,269874,269870,269871,269872],"class_list":["post-945904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-listen-to-vocm","tag-news-radio","tag-news-radio-st-johns","tag-st-johns-fm-radio","tag-st-johns-local-radio","tag-st-johns-radio-station","tag-vocm","tag-vocm-590","tag-vocm-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}