N.S. can end agonizing waits for joint replacements

Agonizing pain. Reduced mobility. Inability to work. Depression.

That is what the wait for joint replacement surgery can be like.

South Shore resident Lorrie Wile was in pain for more than a decade before finally getting her right hip replaced. She described the pain she lived with as “horrendous.” Some days, she could barely walk from her house to the driveway.

Too many Nova Scotians are facing similar situations as they wait too long for lifechanging joint replacement surgeries.

The backlog for these surgeries was bad before COVID-19 and the pandemic just exacerbated the crisis. According to the latest report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, during the first six months of the pandemic, half of patients didn’t receive their surgeries within the recommended time frame, compared to one-third in the same period the previous year.

We are failing patients. And the situation will only get worse unless we take bold action now.

Extra funding and extra operating room hours are critical. But only focusing on funding won’t fundamentally break the cycle.

We need to innovate and, yes, even disrupt the system to make the long-lasting changes that are needed.

In recent years, demand for transformative hip and knee replacement surgeries has increased by 20 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of people living with arthritis — the condition responsible for the vast majority of these procedures — is expected to grow by 50 per cent by 2040.

Recognizing the urgent need to act, the Arthritis Society recently brought together clinicians, patient advocates, industry representatives and health policy experts from across the country to harness their collective experience on possible solutions to the long wait for these so-called “elective” surgeries and the ensuing devastating impact on patients with arthritis. Their recommendations have been captured in The Wait: Addressing Canada’s Critical Backlog of Hip and Knee Replacement Surgeries.

We all agree improved collaboration among the different players in the health-care system — government, clinicians, patients, hospitals, policy leaders and industry — is necessary for real change.

Right now, a lack of communication means health-care models that are seeing success regionally are not available to all Canadians. This needs to change. One of those models is a single-entry system that ensures a patient is treated by the next available surgeon instead of them unknowingly ending up in a long line for a specific specialist.

We must broaden access to community-based joint health management programs. Imagine a scenario where you know someone will one day have a heart attack and instead of providing them with the tools to manage their condition, you just wait until it’s urgent. That’s what’s happening to too many arthritis patients today. Osteoarthritis is too often dismissed: “It’s just arthritis.” This leads to missed opportunities for early diagnosis and disease management, which ultimately means worse outcomes for those needing treatment. We must do better.

Let’s increase same-day surgeries. We’ve begun adopting this practice in Nova Scotia and we need to ensure it’s something all facilities fully embrace as it creates savings we could invest back into helping more patients.

While there have been amazing advances in the technology used for jointreplacement surgeries, we’re stuck in the old way of doing things when it comes to the referral system and supporting patients while they wait.

It’s time to think boldly and innovate because what we’re doing now is not working. Not for the system and definitely not for patients.

As the work begins to address the ballooning backlog, we can’t go back to business as usual. We need to build the system back better.

Patients must be relieved of their agonizing pain.