Thousands of Quebec patients waiting for surgery in wake of 5th wave
CBC
Karine Dupont has been waiting for a knee replacement at Charles-Le Moyne hospital in Longueuil, Que., since the summer of 2020.
She just saw her surgeon for an update and he told her to be prepared to wait for another two years.
"I cried all weekend, all the time. I'm so depressed by that because I'm hurting all the time," said Dupont.
With public health experts saying the fifth wave is subsiding, attention in Quebec is being focused on the huge number of backlogged surgeries left in its wake.
At the end of January, nearly 160,000 people were waiting for surgeries across the province. Many of those surgeries are considered non-urgent, but many others mean people like Dupont are waiting in pain.
"I'm waiting and I'm waiting, waiting," she said.
Dupont said her doctor told her because she's overweight, she'll have to spend at least one night in hospital following her operation, but due to a lack of beds and nursing staff, that isn't possible right now.
"It's not possible to wait two years more," she said.
According to Quebec's Ministry of Health, about 3,500 patients in Quebec have been waiting for surgery for more than two years.
Montérégie, where Dupont is waiting on Montreal's South Shore, is among three regions in Quebec with the longest wait times. Quebec City and Montreal also have substantial wait times, the ministry says.
In Montreal, health officials are looking to cut the waiting list in half by April of 2023.
"The health network is doing better, which will allow us to begin addressing wait times for surgeries," said Sonia Bélanger, president and executive director of the regional health board for Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, during a news conference Wednesday.
To do that, Belanger said they'll have to retrain other staff — like licensed practical nurses — to work in operating rooms, and that takes time.
Just north of Montreal in Laval, the local health agency has opened 10 of its 11 operating rooms in the Cité-de-la-Santé hospital.
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