Orthopaedic surgeries down 25% in B.C. public hospitals as private sector picks up slack
The surgeons who replace worn-out joints and fix broken bones report that they’re doing only three quarters of the surgeries they used to in British Columbia's public hospitals, with an increasing number of taxpayer-funded procedures carried out in private facilities.
The anecdotal figures come as multiple orthopaedists have contacted CTV News to report wait times have grown so long for their patients, some of them are no longer seeing new people for assessments.
“In terms of the days I have allotted in the operating room, they're still running at maybe 75 per cent (of what it used to be),” said Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart, president of the BC Orthopaedic Association, from her practice in Kelowna. “We're booking less surgeries, we're putting less people into that surgical slot because we don't have the hospital capacity to get the same amount of work done.”
Dielwart and other healthcare workers describe a scarcity of experienced peri-operative nurses, staffed recovery beds, and other resources resulting in fewer patients each day a surgeon takes up a scalpel.
On the North Shore, Dr. Richard Nadeau said that where he used to have around six dedicated operating room days a month pre-pandemic, he only gets about four now.
“The time from when they see a surgeon to the time they have surgery, there's a higher proportion of patients that are waiting longer,” he said. “These patients do live with a significant amount of pain and disability so we do want to advocate for them.”
MORE PRIVATE CENTRES PERFORMING PUBLIC SURGERIES
This comes at a time the health minister says that the province is performing record numbers of surgeries.
“The number of people waiting for surgeries has dropped,” claimed Adrian Dix on an appearance of CTV Morning Live on Monday.
But sources say not only are surgeons willing to see fewer new patients as wait times grow, they’re also sceptical of all the government’s claims because only part of the patient’s experience – from the time their pain begins to the day they have a hip replacement, for example – is captured in government statistics and doesn’t include delays in medical imaging.
Dielwart revealed that government has increasingly gone to privately-operated surgical clinics for day procedures, like arthroscopic surgery, which is contracted with taxpayer dollars so the patient doesn’t pay. She emphasized there are wide variations in wait times and reliance on private surgical centres throughout the province.
In the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the province spent a record $27 million for private delivery of public healthcare at surgical clinics, so CTV News asked the ministry of health for updated numbers; four business days after our request was made, they still have not provided them.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Despite criticism that there’s only one pool of healthcare workers in the province and use of private surgical centres undermines the public system, Dix has defended the growing use of those centres since the numbers are so small: from 3.5 per cent of total surgeries in 2018 to 4.4 per cent in 2020.
“Having a small number of surgeries that increase our capacity,” he told CTV News last August. “As long as there's no extra billing and they follow the Medicare Protection Act, I don’t have any objection to that.
But even Dielwart, who has been a proponent of the increased use of private surgical centres to clear patient backlogs and improve their quality of life, is concerned about the most complex cases relying on a public hospital system that’s deteriorating.
“My biggest fear and the fear of many different surgeons is this becomes our new normal – that all of a sudden our Canadian healthcare system our British Columbia healthcare system is operating at 75 per cent,” she said. “Efficiencies have gone so low that thinking forward, we're going to have a hard time keeping up even to what's happening right now.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
What's a Barnacle? It's yellow, sticks and screams if you try to pry it off your car
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
Verdun Airbnb listing taken down amid complaints, fines and frustration from neighbours
An Airbnb in Montreal's Verdun borough was the source of much frustration from neighbours who say there were constant parties at the location. It has been taken down from the app, but housing advocates remain upset about short-term rentals.
Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies of injuries, police say
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
They were from different countries and barely spoke each other's languages. More than 20 years later, they're still happily in love
He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela. 23 years later, they're still in love.
Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
Fire in Labrador town under control, officials tells residents to stay away
RCMP say the fire that prompted a state of emergency in a Labrador town is now under control.
12 students and teacher killed in Columbine school shooting remembered at 25th anniversary vigil
Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.
Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza city of Rafah kills at least 9 Palestinians, including 6 children
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza's southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Mandisa, Grammy award-winning 'American Idol' alum, dead at 47
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.