How were Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada Impacted during the First Six Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

In 2020, health systems across Canada responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by making rapid changes to reduce the risk of exposure for patients and staff and to allocate resources toward the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This included postponing surgical and diagnostic procedures. Data collected by the Canadian Institute for Health Information show that these interventions resulted in longer wait times across all provinces in April-September 2020 for scheduled surgical procedures, such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgeries. The impact on wait times for cancer surgeries and diagnostic imaging varied by type of procedure and jurisdiction, while the wait times for hip fracture repair and radiation therapy were not impacted. Subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic added to the initial backlog of procedures, and it will take time to assess the long-term impact of surgical and diagnostic imaging delays on patient outcomes and wait times.

COVID-related disruptions to colorectal cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment could increase cancer Burden in Australia and Canada: A modelling study

“…Individuals experiencing shorter waits than usual were assumed to have baseline CRC stage at diagnosis and survival rates. For example, in Canada there is evidence that the CRC patients who were already diagnosed and waiting for treatment during the early months of the pandemic experienced shorter times to surgery [ 9 , 34 ]. This is presumably due to shorter surgical waitlists caused by decreases in cancer diagnoses as well as prioritization of urgent cancer-related surgeries during this time.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems worldwide, including provision of cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The downstream effects of such disruptions are difficult to determine-in the case of screening disruptions [13], the health impact may not be clear for years or decades to come, and predictive modelling is often used to provide insights into the possible changes [14].…”

Physician questions and concerns related to COVID-19: a content analysis of advice calls to a medico-legal helpline

“…Although Canada had relatively low rates of COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, the declaration of states of emergency across the country and the widespread implementation of stay-at-home orders resulted in sudden and substantial impacts to the provision of medical care. 23 A comparison of billing data for primary care physicians from Jan. 1 to July 28, 2020, with the same period in 2019 found office visits declined by 79.1%, whereas virtual care increased 56-fold, comprising 71.1% of primary care physician visits. 24 Clinicians quickly shifted to virtual care, grappled with reductions in operating room capacity, experienced shortages in PPE and sought to understand the implications of requests that they work outside of their usual scope of practice.…”

From the Editors

“…An assessment of a research method's value in better quantifying homelessness in Ontario by Booth et al (2022) speaks to data deficiencies and methodological weaknesses that impede an accurate capture of the number of homeless individuals, hobbling the targeted support they need. The Canadian Institute for Health Information's reporting of the COVID-19 pandemic's early impact on priority procedure waitlists (Reason et al 2022) reflects the health system's overall resiliency and its variable vulnerabilities to the impacts of the pandemic, disadvantaging different groups at different times. Sharing reliable health service data during the pandemic can help shape health system responses.…”