British Columbians still waiting too long for hip and knee replacements post-COVID-19: CIHI

Hip-and-knee-replacement surgery waiting times in B.C. continue to be longer than before COVID-19, according to new figures released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The report said just 62 per cent of hip-replacement patients in the province had their surgery within the recommended waiting time of 182 days. Knee-replacement patients waited longer, with just 56 per cent of surgeries performed meetings the 182-day benchmark.

Before the pandemic, in 2019, 76 per cent of hip-replacement surgeries and 66 per cent of knee-replacement surgeries in B.C. were done within the recommended waiting times.

According to the B.C. government website, there were 4,510 patients waiting for hip-replacement surgery as of Feb. 28 while 8,648 patients were waiting for knee-replacement surgery.

The CIHI data are at odds with what the B.C. government is claiming about waiting times.

Health Minister Adrian Dix told a news conference this week that 99.8 per cent of patients whose surgery was postponed in the first wave of the pandemic have had it, and that’s the case for 94.2 per cent of those who didn’t get their procedure in the second and third waves. He said hip and knee surgeries were included in that figure.

However, Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart, president-elect of the B.C. Orthopaedic Association, told The Canadian Press that the province didn’t account for many patients who have suffered without “life-transforming” procedures that weren’t even booked, leading some to become addicted to painkillers.

Dielwart, whose association speaks for about 170 surgeons, said she and other doctors have been getting fewer operating-room days due to a shortage of staff like nurses, so patients aren’t getting booked for surgeries. That means they’re not being counted on any list of cancelled procedures, she said.

Dix’s claim that nearly all cancelled surgeries were completed didn’t fit the reality of an estimated 10,000 people waiting for surgery, many from the first wave of the pandemic, Dielwart added.

Despite continuing efforts to reduce surgical backlogs, CIHI says patients across Canada continue to wait longer for hip-and-knee replacements compared with before the pandemic.

Overall, about 937,000 fewer surgeries have been performed in Canada over the course of the pandemic, with joint replacements and cataract surgeries accounting for about 24 per cent of the total reduction in surgeries.

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