Surgeries at Waterloo region's hospitals threatened by Omicron

Kitchener resident Angela Williams was diagnosed with chiari malformation, a rare brain condition that puts irregular pressure on parts of her brain and spinal cord, at the end of 2019. 

She was scheduled for surgery on Mar. 13, 2020 to address her neck pain, dizziness and migraines, and to prevent her condition from worsening.

Despite tentative surgery dates and multiple visits to the ER, the surgery never came.

"It was scary," said Williams, who has since seen several different doctors, specialists and surgeons beyond the Waterloo region within the past two years. "I didn't hear anything from the surgeon. I didn't hear anything from a doctor. I didn't hear anything."

Now almost two years later, Williams is still waiting for the initial surgery without a date in sight. Except now, she sometimes wakes up choking on her own vomit, frequently loses vision in both eyes and is constantly battling some type of pain.

"I'm just sitting here at a loss," said Williams, who says she's unable to work because of her condition. "I'm hoping and praying for the phone call that never comes."

Williams is one of 11,000 people who are waiting for surgery in the Waterloo region. Hospital officials have estimated it will take more than a year to clear.

Throughout the past two years, hospitals were forced to stop elective surgeries twice, building on an existing backlog of surgeries that in some cases, existed before the pandemic started.

Lee Fairclough, the president of St. Mary's General Hospital and the regional leader against COVID-19, says the region's hospitals are starting to see the effect of delayed or limited access to other services, such as MRI scans and other diagnostic tests. 

"People are coming in sicker — some of it may be because of limited access to care early in the pandemic, both at hospitals but also with primary care," Fairclough said. 

"We're now seeing people coming forward with more advanced presentations of some of their conditions."

About 80 per cent of the region is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While this has helped hospitals ramp up elective surgeries at more than 110 per cent to get back on track, Fairclough says the Omicron variant is posing a threat to those short-lived plans.

"We also realize that to be able to respond in January, we will likely need to reduce some of our non-urgent and emergent procedure work again. Right now, we'll be planning for that," she said.

Fairclough says regional hospitals are looking to ramp up services to support people to get their third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, in addition to preparing resources for the influx of admissions they're expecting due to Omicron cases.