Surgery backlog continues to grow, doctors say

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This article was published 22/03/2022 (1495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of surgeries and tests delayed since the COVID-19 pandemic began has climbed significantly over recent months, Doctors Manitoba reported Tuesday.

The organization estimates the surgical wait list includes at least 54,820 cases — an increase of nearly 2,500 from the group’s previous report, said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Kristjan Thompson.

The estimated number of delayed tests and procedures climbed by 3,809 cases through January and February to 113,067.

“This is difficult news to hear for sure. It’s impacting thousands of Manitobans. Likely over 10 per cent of our population,” said Thompson, an emergency medicine physician at St. Boniface Hospital.

The physicians advocate association again questioned if the province has thrown its full weight behind efforts to clear the backlog.

A recent update from the provincial government stating surgical volumes were returning to pre-pandemic capacity was encouraging, but restoring surgical volumes will not address the backlog, Thompson emphasized.

Rather, the provincial government must urgently add new capacity to the health-care system to help people waiting in pain and ensure its diagnostic and surgical recovery task force has the human resources, logistics and legal support, and budget to carry out its plans, he said.

“We have the minds at the table, and we’re having more physician input at the table, which I think is critical, now we just need to see them get the requisite resources they need to (take) action on these ideas. Without that, an idea is just an idea,” Thompson said.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon said the surgical and diagnostic task force working to address the issue has “incredible authority” when it comes to corralling the necessary resources and cash to bring proposals to fruition.

“They have a lot of authority to bring forward new ideas,” Gordon said, noting third-party organizations continue to put forward proposals to offer diagnostic and surgical procedures.

“They’re working through those proposals, reviewing them, getting them before Treasury Board, so that we can move forward with getting that work done.”

The work of the surgical and diagnostic task force is shaping up to be more complex than that of the vaccine implementation task force, which immunized more than one million Manitobans against COVID-19 in less than a year, Gordon said.

“We were setting up clinical sites and we were bringing staff from programs currently in the system,” she said of the immunization campaign. “With the diagnostic and surgical work, we’re procuring services from service delivery organizations within the system, here in Manitoba and outside of the province.

“We certainly wouldn’t have volunteers helping in an (operating room) where cardiac or critical care is happening. You need specialized staff for that.”

Gordon did not rule out sending more patients out of province for surgery as the government attempts to increase its capacity. As many as five spinal surgery patients have already been scheduled for operations at a private hospital in Fargo, N.D.

“The goal is to ensure Manitobans receive their care as quickly as possible,” Gordon said.

It is unacceptable the backlog has continued to grow as government communication on the subject has all but ceased, NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said.

The task force has not provided an in-person update since January, owing to a blackout on government communications during the Fort Whyte byelection period.

The task force is mandated to provide monthly progress reports to Manitobans, and an update will be provided next week, Gordon said.

“They’ve been using the byelection in Fort Whyte as a way to dodge and avoid accountability on this issue,” Asagwara said.

As the government task force does its work, Doctors Manitoba will continue to revise its estimates to offer a more refined picture of what is required to clear the backlog, Thompson said.

The backlog needs to be adjusted to account for surgeries and tests no longer required for various reasons, including cases where a patient’s condition may have deteriorated or improved over the past two years, and cases where patients died while waiting, he said.

It remains unclear how many Manitobans died while on a wait list since the pandemic began, Thompson noted.

“Manitobans deserve to know that number,” he said. “One person who died waiting is one too many.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca