MetroVan Urology

We have initiated a number of changes in concert with VCH (including Richmond Hospital) and FH (Delta Hospital) to respond to the unprecidented strain on the medical system.

1. Screening for patients prior to visits (see above)
2. Limiting patient contact and exposure: only essential physical exams, cystoscopy and surgery will be performed)
3. Restricting access to the office

Metrovan Urology is currently offering televisits and we are expanding rapidly. There are 2 forms of this visit:

1. Telephone consults
2. Video consults

NEW PATIENTS:  If you are a new patient, please complete the appropriate pre-visit questionnaires 

• Pre-visit Questionnaires
  • Fax to our office: 604-273-7599
• If you are unable to access this information, ensure you can answer the following questions for the surgeon:
  • Past Medical History
  • Allergies
  • Medications

Phone Consultations

At present, our preference is to communicate by phone. We will assign you a '3 hour window' during which the surgeon will conact you.

Video Consultations

Please be patient while we are implement video consultations. 

Create and account at Doxy.me 

Sign up for Free by selecting the box in the upper right corner to create a patient account.

Please rest assure that Televisits meet the strict standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and that when using Doxy there is no data transmission outside of Canada. We do NOT keep a digital record of the meeting.

NEW PATIENTS:  If you are a new patient, please complete the appropriate pre-visit questionnaires 

• Pre-visit Questionnaires
  • Fax to our office: 604-273-7599
• If you are unable to access this information, ensure you can answer the following questions for the surgeon:
  • Past Medical History
  • Allergies
  • Medications

Please refer to the advice above regarding when you should not come in person (these criteria also apply for anyone who may accompany you).

Effective immediately, only the patient undergoing consultation is permitted in office. This policy will be in place until further notice with very limited exceptions.

There are only 2 excemptions: 

1. ONE caregiver (parent or another patient) may accompany child
2. ONE caregiver to translate to English

Wait in your vehicle or outside the building. In order to limit patient and staff exposure there will be NO WAITING in the office. We will call you when it is your time to come to the office. If you have not received a call within 10 minutes of the scheduled time, please call 604-273-4320

Use the hand sanitizer found outside the door.

You will be directed to the appropriate exam room by the staff. Please do not sit down in the waiting room.

We are doing everything possible to balance the risks of exposure to COVID-19 within the healthcare system with the risks presented by the disease. We are acutely sensitive to the anxiety and stress that any delay in treatment may cause. Hospitals have been identified as a source of infectious spread which is the result of their role in caring for those with the severest COVID-19 infections. Furthermore, every hospital has been required to reduce its capacity for surgery because of the need for ventilators and because of staff shortages as the front line health professionals require quarantine or become ill. In short, the healthcare system is experiencing unprecedented stress.

We are doing everything possible to minimize your exposure and this may mandate postponing procedures and diagnostic tests. As operating capacity improves, those patients who are most at risk will undergo surgery first.

Guidelines regarding the triage of patients requiring urological surgery are being developed. The European Journal of Urology is publishing guidelines that recommend that virutally all urological surgery be postponed with several exceptions. These exceptions include:

• Renal failure by obstruction not amenable to catheter drainage. This includes men awaiting TURP surgery for urinary retention.
• Renal obstruction from stone, especially
• Muscle invasive bladder cancer and bladder tumors where high grade and/or invasion cannot be reliably excluded
• Hematuria where there is a high likelihood of bladder cancer

Surgery that will be rescheduled as there is little immediate risk to a delay of weeks to a few months includes

• Radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer
• Kidney surgery
• Stone surgery with the exception of concurrent infection or bilateral obstruction
• Reconstructive surgery for non-life threatening conditions
• Urodynamics

At this time, we are unable to provide a date for rescheduled surgery. We are experiencing high call volume and would appreciate your patience. Once we have confirmed that you have be reassigned to the wait list you will be called once time becomes available.

Our team of surgeons are assessing timing of surgery on a case by case basis patients at high risk of disability by a delay in surgery.