Hip-surgery patient pained by unexpected delay

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This article was published 16/06/2023 (861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mark Havens was told in November he would have to wait six months to consult with a doctor about getting a new hip joint.

Now he’s been told he won’t get an appointment until September.

“What changed?” said Havens, a 50-something IT professional from Winnipeg.

Uncertain surgery wait times remain a reality for Manitobans, even as the province says it’s making progress on clearing the COVID-19 pandemic- related backlog.

Patients should be kept better informed about any change to their estimated wait times, Havens said. “It’s about transparency, responsibility and customer service.”

His health problems were diagnosed about two years ago, and Havens received a referral in November, landing him on the orthopedic wait list under the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s central intake office for hip and knee replacements.

In a letter from the intake office dated Nov. 10, 2022, Havens was informed the average wait time for a consultation with a surgeon was six months, plus another 18 months before the surgery. The letter stated he would be put on the wait list for one of the next available surgeons.

Havens expected to hear back within six months, but didn’t.

Last week, he phoned the surgeon’s office and was told the surgeon is only available for consultations one day a week, and Havens shouldn’t expect to see him before September.

Havens said he understands patients who are worse off are also waiting. He doesn’t want to be a “squeaky wheel,” but he questions why patients aren’t kept in the loop and given explanations about fluctuating wait times.

“I realize they don’t like giving bad news, but bad news can be better than no news at all.”

A periodic update would be helpful, Havens said, noting the ongoing deterioration of his hip makes him feel like a frog in a pot of water ready to boil.

“I would like to be able to do things like ride a bicycle, ride my motorcycle, play pickle ball. My activities are pretty limited,” he said.

“It’s getting worse and I’m not necessarily noticing how bad it is until I try to do something, and, oh, I can’t do that.”

Such wait times have been increasing, according to the available data from Shared Health.

The median wait time for an orthopedic hip replacement from surgeon consultation to surgery was 25 weeks in 2022, up from 24 weeks in 2020 and 2021, and up from 23 weeks in 2019, the provincial diagnostic and surgical recovery task force dashboard shows.

However, wait-time tracking from a patient consultation for hip and knee joint replacement to surgery is not currently tracked, a Shared Health spokesman said.

“Work to track this wait from the primary care referral to specialist consultation is in the planning stages,” he said.

Shared Health stated patients with more serious needs are moved to the front of the line.

When the task force reported May 31 that hip and knee replacements were among the surgical procedures to have their pandemic backlogs drop by half, it provided no data to contextualize the 50 per cent drop.

At the time, Ed Buchel, provincial specialty surgery lead for Shared Health, said the task force doesn’t know how long patients are actually waiting.

“We are trying to set benchmarks provincially for that. We do not have benchmarks for the vast majority of surgical procedures that are done. That is now the next step that the task force and Shared Health are moving forward,” Buchel said.

A surgical wait-list information system is being established and is expected to roll out across the province this summer, he said.

“We can tell you, if you’re a specific person, how long you’re waiting, we think, but we need to do much better on that — and to do that we need systems, and the systems for data management and understanding where our resources are, are coming. They’re coming this summer.”

The lack of communication doesn’t sit well with Havens.

“I’m disappointed in the customer service,” he said. “I hope there aren’t too many people out there who are also guessing.

“Don’t just leave me hanging. Don’t just (say) we’ll talk to you in six months and then not call. If I was dating the health-care system, I’d break up with it.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com