Parents with children waiting for non-urgent surgery at SickKids left with few options
CBC
Parents of children who've been waiting years to have routine, non-urgent surgery at SickKids to correct a birth defect say they have few options — either they keep waiting or leave the country as the hospital struggles to reduce a growing surgical backlog.
A total of 698 children were on a waiting list for hypospadias surgery at SickKids as of Oct. 31, making up around 10 per cent of the 6,021 patients waiting for all kinds of surgeries.
CBC Toronto heard from some of those families after publishing a story earlier this week about a three-year-old boy who received a January 2023 date for his hypospadias surgery on Monday — three years after the diagnosis.
Some parents whose children don't yet have a hypospadias surgery date say they've reached out to other Ontario hospitals to see if they could get the procedure done there, only to be turned down, while another is considering travelling to the U.S. and paying out-of-pocket.
Their stories come as children's hospitals across the province are facing a surge in patients with respiratory illness. They highlight how increasing pressure on Ontario's health-care system is straining resources and pushing up wait times for non-urgent, non-emergency procedures.
That's forcing many children to wait beyond the recommended clinical window for treatment.
Hypospadias is a birth defect in which the urethra is not located at the tip of the penis, but instead on the shaft or near the point where the penis and scrotum meet.
While not life-threatening, medical experts say it should ideally be operated on within six to 18 months. If not treated, patients can develop urinary blockage, reproductive issues or psychological problems as they grow older.
Rebecca Ring, who lives in Port Perry, Ont., 83 kilometres northeast of Toronto, has a three-year-old son, Owen, who is waiting for a hypospadias operation.
"I have no idea when he will ever get this surgery," Ring told CBC Toronto.
She said she was told by a doctor at the urology department at SickKids in January 2020 that her son will likely require two procedures. Three years after diagnosis, the family doesn't have a date for the first.
"It's really frustrating and it's a bit heartbreaking not to know anything," said Ring. "I feel like we've been ignored."
Ring said her son got a referral to McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, where they also perform hypospadias surgery, but the family was told they couldn't be served there because they live outside the hospital's catchment area.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Hamilton Health Sciences, which operates McMaster Children's Hospital, said it's facing its own pediatric surgical backlog.
This First Person column is the experience of Shannon Flaman, who lives in Red Deer, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
City staff are working on long-term plans to prevent toxic and smelly algae blooms at the Hamilton harbour – and short-term plans to mitigate blooms when they happen – but are cautioning residents that it's not the type of problem with a quick fix.
Another blockade of the Ambassador Bridge wouldn't play out like what happened in February 2022 — thanks to police being empowered to act faster and harder, according to a report that's going to Windsor city council next week.
On the first day of 2025, Alberta's default electricity rate is set to be replaced by the new "rate of last resort," in what the province says is a bid to protect consumers from a volatile electricity pricing landscape.
Canadians and Americans sit next to each other in the stands of a small Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., hockey arena to watch the Soo Thunderbirds face off against their cross-border rivals, Michigan's Soo Eagles.
A number of school bus routes in northwestern Ontario have been cancelled Wednesday after a dump of snow overnight in the region. A number of weather advisories also remain in effect in the region, including snow squall warnings in the Greenstone area.
Waterloo regional councillors have voted down a motion that would have asked the Waterloo Regional Police Service to cut $4 million from its proposed 2025 budget.
Residents of a neighbourhood in the heart of downtown Charlottetown hope to have a community garden in place on some vacant land by the time spring arrives.
Planting trees is a popular way to mitigate climate change, but in northern and Arctic regions, it may not be an effective solution.
The RCMP says it's considering deploying Mounties-in-training to help police the Canada-U.S. border as political anxiety over border control mounts in the face of tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration.
Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were honoured Tuesday night before the Calgary Flames played the Columbus Blue Jackets, on the same ice where Johnny etched his place as a cherished member of the city's hockey community.