Nearly 3,000 Montrealers have been waiting at least a half year for cancer surgery and other major operations, up from fewer than 2,200 in 2007, according to a Gazette analysis.
What’s more, the Quebec Health Department has stopped publishing statistics on those who have been waiting for at least nine months, even though there are patients who continue to wait at least a year for some operations like bariatric surgery.
“It’s shocking,” said patient-rights advocate Paul Brunet, of the Conseil pour la protection des malades.
“For the kind of money we spend on health care, it’s unfortunate that we cannot have better access than we have now.”
The increase in wait times for elective, or non-urgent, operations has occurred even though the volume of such procedures has not increased.
Five years ago, Montreal hospitals performed 54,000 surgeries that require hospitalization, including operations of the stomach and bowels.
By comparison, from April 1, 2011, until the end of February – nearly 10 months – the total number of these operations was 40,267 in Montreal.
Brunet suggested that the government’s focus on reducing wait times for hip and knee replacements, as well as cataract removal, has come at the expense of major operations. That view is backed up by the statistics, which do show a reduction in the numbers of patients facing lengthy delays for the three targeted surgeries.
At present, 61 people have been waiting at least a half year for arthroscopic knee surgery in Montreal, down from 199 for the corresponding period in 2008. A total of 44 people have been waiting at least six months for a hip replacement, down from 67 in 2008.
For cataract removal, the results are mixed: 180 people have been waiting longer than half a year – considered medically unacceptable – compared with 127 in 2008. However, Montreal hospitals have substantially increased the volume of cataract operations as the population has aged.
In 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec patients were enduring unacceptably lengthy delays in hip and knee surgery, and as a result, their civil rights were being violated. The government responded by reducing wait times for these two surgeries, along with cataract removal.
Although there was some talk at the time of establishing a binding wait-time guarantee, the government instead adopted Bill 33, aimed at eliminating the backlog of cases for joint replacements and vision-restoration surgery.
Natacha Joncas Boudreau, press attaché to Health Minister Yves Bolduc, defended the government’s record in reducing surgical wait times, noting that 93 per cent of Quebec patients in need of surgery are treated within six months.
“That’s a significant improvement,” Joncas Boudreau said Wednesday. “Year after year, there’s been an increase in the (overall) volume of surgery, and despite this fact, there have been improvements.”
She noted that the hospitals across Quebec carried out an additional 15,000 surgeries last year. Still, she conceded that the government needs to improve access for bariatric surgery.
Cardiac surgeons have reported an increase in wait times for bypass operations, although the government has not yet posted statistics.
The government has made some modest progress in tackling wait times for day surgeries – operations ranging from cyst removals to repairing carpal tunnel syndrome. As of the end of February, a total of 7,780 people in Montreal had been waiting at least a half year for day surgeries (excluding cataract removal, which has its own category), down from 10,605 in 2008.
The government statistics show a wide disparity in wait times among Montreal hospitals, suggesting that a better organization of medical services and staff can produce superior results.
For example, the average wait time for cataract removal at Hôtel Dieu hospital is only one week (the best in the city), compared with four months at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (the worst showing).
For knee surgery, the Jewish General Hospital reported the best results, an average wait time of nine weeks, while Maisonneuve-Rosemont again fared the worst, with an average wait of 35 weeks.
Some hospitals have reported dramatic improvements, like the Lakeshore General.
It reported an average delay of eight weeks for knee surgery, second in the best results, after the Jewish General, with an average delay of seven weeks.
Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: Aaron Derfel
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