Surgery wait times improving across Canada, report says
Waiting time for surgeries and other medical procedures are improving across the country, according to a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
The report, which examines waiting times and trends between April 2020 and September 2021, finds that most urgent surgical procedures are now being performed within the recommended waiting times.
For example, 85 per cent of hip fracture surgeries are conducted within the 48-hour waiting time window while 97 per cent of radiotherapy procedures take place within the delay of four-weeks.
“Waiting times are improving and are in the process of returning to pre-pandemic levels,” said CIHI spokesperson Alya Niang.
In some cases, procedures are being performed even more rapidly than they were before the pandemic. That includes MRI scans, which are being performed five or six days sooner than they were prior to the pandemic. The improvement is attributed to a reorganization of resources, most notably in staffing increases that allow increased MRI use in some health-care centres.
Two-thirds of cataract surgeries are being conducted within the recommended delay compared with 70 per cent before the pandemic.
The improvements are not due exclusively to the fact the pandemic seems to be losing ground and more resources are being freed up, said Niang.
“We realized that certain surgeries need not be put on hold,” she said. “After the first six months (of the pandemic) ... they were able to resume.”
CIHI statistics show the number of surgeries dropped by 600,000 across the country between December 2019, around the start of the pandemic, and December 2021. Joint replacements and cataract surgeries represented about one-quarter of these procedures.
The number of surgeries related to cancer increased close to pre-pandemic levels between April and September 2021.
“The lessons learned at the start of the pandemic allowed for a re-deployment of resources within the health system in order to reduce, as much as possible, the delays in surgeries and diagnostic tests,” the CIHI explained in a communiqué.
Patients waiting for joint replacements did not fare as well as those waiting for other procedures. Nationally, about 60 per cent of those requiring a knee replacement received it within the recommended waiting time compared with 70 per cent pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, 65 per cent of hip replacements were performed within the recommended delay compared with 75 per cent before the pandemic.
In Quebec, 52 per cent of patients received a new hip and 44 per cent a new knee within the recommended waiting times. Those respective percentages stood at 75 per cent and 71 per cent in Ontario and 54 per cent and 45 per cent in New Brunswick.
In Quebec, 68 per cent of cataract surgeries were performed within the recommended delay compared with 60 per cent in Ontario and 71 per cent in New Brunswick. A total of 99 per cent of radiotherapy treatments were carried within the recommended delay in Quebec compared with 98 per cent in Ontario and 92 per cent in New Brunswick.