N.L. averaged 1,400 fewer surgeries per month from onset of pandemic through June: study

New research on the impacts of COVID-19 has found a profound effect on hospital services in Newfoundland and Labrador during the pandemic.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information says nearly 1,400 fewer surgeries were performed per month across the province during the first 16 months of the pandemic, from March 2020 to June of this year.

"There were about 22,000 less surgeries in Newfoundland compared to the year before," Tracy Johnson, director of health system analytics at CIHI, told CBC News. 

According to the institute, April 2020 saw the biggest drop — about 83 per cent — in total surgeries in Newfoundland and Labrador compared with April 2019, including about 53 per cent fewer cardiac surgeries, 47 per cent fewer cancer surgeries and 90 per cent fewer hip and knee replacements.

Just 900 surgeries were performed in Newfoundland and Labrador in April 2020, compared with more than 5,200 in the same month one year earlier.

"If you have been waiting awhile for a hip or knee replacement, one can imagine that it affects your quality of life and your functioning," said Johnson.

Not all delayed surgeries were scheduled procedures said Johnson; there was also a drop in demand for trauma surgeries when workplaces closed and people worked from home. During those slowdowns there were fewer cars on the roads and less need for emergency surgery following accidents.

The research also found surgeries rebounded closer to 2019 numbers quickly by July 2020, when about 4,000 surgeries were performed, compared with about 4,500 in July 2019.

The total number of surgeries dipped again this year when there were outbreaks of COVID-19 in February 2021 and again in June when COVID-19 case numbers rose.

Johnson couldn't say whether Newfoundland and Labrador is catching up with the backlog of delayed surgeries.

"Different provinces have had different strategies for catching up," she said.

"The challenges around catching up are finding operating room time and finding enough nurses and surgeons to do the surgeries. These folks have been running flat-out for a year and a half with COVID."

Johnson also said more research is needed to measure what the delays have meant to patients.

"Do we see people coming with more severe cardiac disease because it was missed early on? Or other challenges like cancers that are at a later stage? And at the moment we can't answer those questions," she said.