So she was devastated to find that she was now on a two-year waiting list for an operation on Prince George in northern BC. “That’s enough. I have to do it,” he said. “I am disappointed”. Daily chores and hobbies are becoming more and more painful day by day, says Fort St. John resident and teaching assistant. “We are somewhat left here and stuck in pain without being able to do anything.” Amber Nurse, a teaching assistant from Fort St. John, BC, says he has been put on a two-year waiting list for knee surgery. (Amber Nurse)
She is a nurse among 8,315 patients waiting for knee surgery in BC from March 31, 2022, according to provincial data. This prompted orthopedic surgeons to issue a warning about what they describe as a “surgical crisis”, exacerbated by staff shortages and incompetence in hospitals. “These patients are losing their jobs. These patients are addicted to drugs, these patients are living with pain, they are suffering from depression and they are the ones bearing the brunt of this problem,” she said. Cassandra Lane Dielwart, President-Elect of the British Columbia Orthopedic Association. According to the data, the surgeries with the highest pendencies during the pandemic include selective or non-urgent total hip and knee arthroplasties. “Orthopedics has suffered from closure at a disproportionately high rate compared to all other surgical specialties,” Dilwart wrote in a letter to BC Health Minister Adrian Dix in March. For example, 158 people are waiting for skull surgery, 417 for open heart surgery and 4,389 for hip replacement, according to provincial figures. Dielwart adds that the areas with the longest waiting times are Prince George, Kamloops and Lower Mainland.

Patients are frustrated as cancellations increase

At the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, south of BC, waiting lists for orthopedic surgery have increased by 40 to 50 percent in the last two years, according to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Hughes. He says cancellations remain a daily conversation with patients who come thinking they are undergoing surgery just to find that there is not enough staff. “It’s almost festive if we could spend a whole day without cancellation,” he said. Dix recently told reporters that the provincial government is working to increase the capacity of the operating room by opening new operating rooms. For example, two private surgical facilities on Vancouver Island, the View Royal Surgical Center in Victoria and the Seafield Surgical Center in Nanaimo, will become part of the public health system as BC leases and buys equipment, the Department of Health announced on last Thursday. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming months at a cost of $ 11.5 million for both sites, according to a department statement. Part of a knee replacement surgery procedure is shown in this photo. In BC, 8,315 patients are awaiting knee surgery, according to provincial data by March 31, 2022. (Vincent Bonnay / Radio Canada)
Buck Shannon, a 71-year-old Lillooet resident, says his knee replacement was canceled twice just a few days before the Kamloops operation. He is also currently waiting for a shoulder replacement, which should have been done six months ago, he says. “I was shot. I was stabbed while serving in Vietnam. Nothing can compare to what I am currently going through on my left shoulder,” he said. “It makes me feel like we’s worth nothing as seniors.”

Lack of beds, hospital staff

One of the reasons behind the delays is that the Interior and North have fewer health care facilities, says Dr. Dave Nelson, an orthopedic surgeon at North BC University Hospital. at Prince George,. Many surgeons have to compete for the same limited operating space and need more beds to accommodate more patients, he says. In Kamloops, where capacity was a chronic issue, according to Dr. Hughes, pandemics, fires and floods have exacerbated the problem. Outsourcing has also created challenges, he says.

Deeper changes are needed, says the policy expert

Andrew Longhurst, a health policy researcher and PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University in Metro Vancouver, says deeper changes are needed – especially as COVID-19 continues to affect the capacity of hospitals. He suggested that doctors refer patients to a team of surgeons rather than individual surgeons to increase efficiency. “At the moment, many primary care providers only have the option of referring a patient to a single surgeon,” he said. If patients were referred to a team of surgeons, the first available surgeon with the shortest waiting list could pick up the patient instead of delaying the operation, Longhurst explains. He also suggested the province fund physiotherapists and occupational therapists to help reduce pain in patients awaiting surgery. Amber Nurse, meanwhile, says she will continue to talk about how the system fails. “I will continue to talk to anyone who wants to hear and try to change that,” he said. “Either I will blacklist myself or I will get the help I need.”