Surgery backlog tops 11,000 cases in Hamilton due to pandemic

Hamilton hospitals say the pandemic has put roughly 11,300 surgeries on hold and the backlog may take years to clear.

Sharon Pierson, chief operating officer and executive vice-president of clinical operations at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), said the provincial backlog is roughly 500,000 surgical casesduring a town hall meeting on June 24.

"For HHS, our surgical backlog is5,600 cases, so lots of planning around how we will try to address this deferred care over the course of theupcoming months and year and probablyinto years," she said.

Dr. Anthony Adili,chief of surgery at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, said itsbacklog of procedures that aren't urgent or considered emergencies is roughly 5,700 cases.

"That's over and above the backlog we had going into the pandemic,"Adili said during an interview with CBC News. "It's a significant challenge that we have to address."

Those include spine surgeries,joint and shoulder replacements, cataracts, and plastic surgeries among others.

"These surgeries have significant impacts on a patient's quality of life," he said.

Patients with time-sensitive or especially serious issues, like those with head, neck and bowelcancers,haven't had their procedures delayed during the pandemic, according toAdili.

He said hospitals in the Ontario West Region are working togetherto clear the delays.

Pierson said the number of surgeries and procedures happening at HHS are rising, but the hospitalstill faces staffing struggles because of the pandemic.

Other pressures include reserving surge capacity space for critical care and capacity forextracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine patients (the most aggressive form of life-support for COVID-19 patients).

Backlog may increase

One issue that could add to the backlog is a recent drop in screening tests for cancer. In late March, HHS said there were32,000 fewer mammograms, 38,000 fewer Pap tests and 29,000 fewer colorectal cancer stool tests completed in 2020 compared to the year before.

"This equates to possibly hundreds of undetected cancers. For the province, this number is in the thousands," read an HHSmedia release at the time.

The hospital network said people were avoiding hospitals out of fear they would get COVID-19.

Adili also said CT scans, biopsies, colonoscopiesand similar procedureshave also been reduced and when they increase again, the backlog could increase.

"We will be sensitive to those patient populations and will accommodate ... but the non-urgent and non-emergent cases may end up suffering a bit more," he explained.

But Adili saidthe province has openedup more alternate-level-of-care beds in hospitals, which has helped address the backlog.

He addedthegeneral public can do its part to reducethe backlogby following public health advice during the pandemic.