A North Wales health board will restart some of the services put on hold as a result of the coronavirus.

Betsi Cadwaladr has continued to provide urgent care and treatments for patients throughout the pandemic, but many routine appointments and treatments had to be postponed.

Plans are now in place to slowly restart many of the services that have been put on hold, but changes will be put in place to accommodate social distancing.

Treatments will be scheduled in order of clinical priority but patients will need to be prepared for longer waits than anticipated prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the health board has warned.

Orthopaedics is amongst the services that are gradually restarting.

Clinical director for trauma and orthopaedics and consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Bala Ramesh, said: “As Covid-19 is still circulating in our communities it is not possible to restore our services as normal.

“However, there are musculoskeletal conditions that need urgent surgical input, such as complex hand conditions, sports injuries and shoulder conditions.

“We have worked together to find the safest way possible to restart our services slowly and are prioritising our most urgent patients.

“We are pleased we can offer inpatient provision at Spire Yale Hospital and that operations have already restarted there during August.”

Urgent day case surgery is expected to restart in Ysbyty Gwynedd in early September with urgent elective surgery planned for the end of the month.

Clinical lead for orthopaedics at Ysbyty Gwynedd, consultant orthopaedic surgeon Haroon Mumtaz, said: “The safety of our patients is our main priority. We have been working together to find ways we can restart elective care whilst still living with Covid-19.

“We understand our patients will be concerned and we want to reassure them that they are not forgotten.

“We are looking forward to restarting our day cases which will be for our patients who need urgent upper and lower limb surgery with a view to providing elective inpatient surgery towards the end of the month.”

Anyone having elective surgery will be given a Covid-19 test and asked to self-isolate before admission. If there has been any change in a patient’s clinical condition, patients are asked to contact their GP.

Kate Clark, secondary care medical director for Betsi Cadwaladr, said: “Although Covid-19 has caused significant disruption to our services we have continued to prioritise those patients across North Wales who are in need of the most urgent care, such as those who need cancer surgery.

“We are now beginning to slowly re-start some of our routine services that have been postponed during the pandemic.

“We have prioritised waiting lists so that we can offer patients access to treatments in order of clinical priority. However, some patients will experience longer waits to be seen for their treatment.

“It is important that we bring back our services where we can, but only where that can be done safely – the virus is still circulating and our priority is to keep our patients and staff as safe as possible.”