Doctors call for help as hospitals battle surgical backlogs, staffing shortages

Cheryl Sword does as many activities as she can with her husband and 11-year-old son, until she has to stop and rest. 

"My abdominal pain and pressure stops me in my tracks," Sword, 36, who lives in Sherwood Park, Alta., told CBC News. 

She was supposed to have two ovarian cysts, one on each side, removed in early 2020. But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and " the world shut down."

Her doctor assured her that ovarian cysts are quite common and it would be fine to delay the surgery. 

But as time dragged on for more than a year, the cysts got bigger — and so did the pain.

Finally, her surgery was rescheduled for September 2021. Sword notified her daycare clients so they could make alternate child-care arrangements during what was expected to be a long recovery. 

But then, Alberta was hit by a devastating fourth wave — and as hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients, her surgery was cancelled yet again. 

"I went into the bathroom, got in the shower, and sat on the floor and cried," she said. 

Sword is one of hundreds of thousands of people across the country whose surgical and diagnostic procedures have been delayed, the Canadian Medical Association says. 

A recent report, commissioned by the CMA from consulting firm Deloitte, estimates that there's currently a backlog of 327,800 procedures — and that it will take at least $1.3 billion in additional funding "to return wait-times to their pre-pandemic levels."

"This number may be even higher when additional procedures and the cancellation of non-urgent surgeries in several provinces during the fourth wave are factored in," the report said. 

Although hospitals prioritized life-saving and urgent procedures, there are consequences for those patients, like Sword, who didn't meet those criteria, said Dr. Katharine Smart, a pediatrician and president of the Canadian Medical Association.  

"There's no question, you know, when services, imaging, testing, biopsies, surgeries are delayed, many people's problems get worse, not better," Smart said. 

"So instead of having perhaps a problem that would have had a simple solution or maybe required a non-invasive operation, now you're dealing with a problem that's much more significant for the patient."