Ontario pediatric hospitals ask for help to deal with backlog of 12,000 surgeries

Nearly 12,000 children are on a wait list for surgeries across Ontario, a situation officials at four major pediatric hospitals say is part of a much bigger problem they need help from the province to solve.

A surge of viral respiratory illnesses, driven by a particularly bad strain of the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, overwhelmed the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, the Children's Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre and CHEO, a health care and research facility in Ottawa.

The hospitals say that surge has abated after three difficult months which saw surgeries cancelled and staff redeployed to help out overburdened emergency departments and intensive care units.

But through that time, the surgical wait list continued to grow.

About half of the 11,789 children on it are waiting beyond the clinically recommended wait times, which hospitals say is partially due to the respiratory surge and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The fact that we've now come out of the surge and we're still very strained helps to demonstrate that we really need major investments," said Bruce Squires, president of McMaster Children's Hospital.

The surgical wait list at the hospital sits at 2,332 children, Squires said, adding 69 per cent of those procedures are beyond the clinically recommended wait times. He said more specialized operating room staff, like nurses and anesthesiologists, are needed to address the situation.

Staffing is the main issue preventing the four hospitals from ramping up surgeries.

SickKids in Toronto, which is back to 85 per cent of surgical capacity, said the wait list will actually grow even if they restore full service levels. For a stretch last year, SickKids operated at 100 per cent capacity and the wait list ballooned by 15 per cent, said Dr. Simon Kelley, a surgeon and associate chief of perioperative services the hospital.

And that was before the surge.

The wait list at SickKids sits at 6,301 procedures. Hospital staff had to cancel 280 surgeries since ramping service levels down in mid-November, with half those procedures now completed or rescheduled.

Kelley said the hospital is working with regional facilities to launch a new model that would see the community hospitals take on more pediatric surgeries, likely more straightforward day procedures.

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Ontario Health, with support from the Ministry of Health, has helped organize meetings with regional health-care providers and are helping identify which procedures could be done outside the main pediatric hospitals, Kelley said.