Surgeries in Quebec fall behind, thwarting province's plan to clear backlog
CBC
Surgeries in Quebec hit their lowest point in months in early September, falling well behind goals set by Health Minister Christian Dubé, according to Health Ministry data.
In June, Dubé said the province aimed to return surgical activity to 100 per cent of its pre-pandemic rate by October — or around 35,000 surgeries per month — and then exceed those numbers in the months ahead in order to clear a massive waiting list.
But at the beginning of this month, surgical activity was at only 73 per cent of that goal. In the Chaudière-Appalaches and Montérégie regions, surgeries were happening at 50 per cent of the October target. The Montreal region was slightly better than the provincial average, at 81 per cent.
Mélissa Leblanc is an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Lévis, and the vice-president of the council for doctors, dentists and pharmacists at the CISSS of Chaudières-Appalaches.
About half of the ten available operating rooms are used at any given time in Lévis and the surrounding Chaudières-Appalaches region, she told Radio-Canada. "We aren't able to treat [our patients] as quickly as we would like," she said.
"What we're seeing are waiting lists increasing non-stop," she said. "Some of our doctors have almost 50 per cent of patients on their waiting lists who have been waiting for more than six months."
A change from even a few months ago, when a six-month wait was unusual, she said.
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