Peter, delaying elective surgeries can lead to serious and dangerous situations. Maybe more so in Canada than in USA where the waiting times are normally shorter. If a cancer chemotherapy is postponed by a few weeks, that might not be not critical, but if it stretches to more than 6 months, that would be a death sentence. Similarly, a bad hip if not treated could lead to a fall and thus to serious complications and deferred diabetes consultation could result in an amputated leg.
>> If delaying a surgery can "lead to serious and dangerous situations" Then it is, BY DEFINITION, not elective. Is this hard to understand?? Sheesh!
Peter, since you didn't bother to read my post and the supplied link or you need additional information, let me explain it to you in more detail as it pertains to joint replacement, cancer and heart disease.
1. There are health conditions that start as relatively benign problems and are assigned to elective surgery category, but as the time progresses, these conditions worsen and make the life very difficult for the patient. For example, if you are diagnosed with a knee or hip problem and the specialists recommend a joint replacement surgery, by that time the condition is pretty serious and you are experiencing both, a strong pain and reduced ability to move. Because of that, you'll be moving less, your muscles will weaken, you'll lose balance when standing or walking, start taking more and more painkillers, and maybe even gain weight. Having to deal with all these changes your quality of life goes downhill, you will become less mobile, and even worse, may fall and injure yourself, which would lead to even greater problems. And while going through all this suffering, you are still waiting for your "elective" surgery.
2. Or you may be diagnosed with a cancer that requires surgery. Usually, the cancer treatment starts with surgery and is followed by chemotherapy and radiation. In other cases, the first treatment is a chemotherapy, then surgery and finally radiation. Right now, many initial consultations and even the treatments are postponed.
The daughter of a man whose "life-saving" brain cancer surgery was cancelled, said doctors were "having to make the decision about who lives and who dies" because of coronavirus. James Byrom, 72, had been due to have an operation at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on Monday. The family said the decision to cancel was "devastating".
The hospital said it was trying to keep services running normally and was explaining options to patients. My Byrom, who was diagnosed a month ago, said he was told surgery was the only option.
"Doctors are having to make a decision about who lives and who dies, and if you're of a certain age, do the public realise if you've got cancer, you don't stand a chance"
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52197408
Decades before COVID-19 struck, Canadians in every province and territory were suffering, and some dying, on ever-lengthening wait lists. In an already overloaded system, with virtually zero spare capacity, treating burgeoning numbers of COVID-19 patients will necessitate further delay for other patients with such time-critical afflictions as cancer. And that’s already happening. Over the past few days, two Ontario women had their cancer surgery operations cancelled so hospitals can free up capacity for COVID-19 patients.
3. Today, Ontario's health minister Christine Elliott said today that 35 cardiac care patients may have died after heart surgeries were cancelled to free up beds for an anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients.
As of April 22, up to 52,700 hospital procedures have been cancelled or avoided in Ontario due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario (FAO).
Canada’s hospital capacity has been in steady decline. The latest available statistics comparing 24 developed countries show that in 2017 Canada ranked dead last in hospital beds per capita at just 2.5 per thousand. Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Latvia all had more than twice that number.
The U.S. was only marginally better at 2.8 per cent, but that’s where the similarity ends. The occupancy level of Canada’s hospital beds was 92 per cent. Because logistics and staffing make 100 per cent utilization impossible that effectively means zero unused capacity. By contrast, hospital bed occupancy in the U.S. was just 64 per cent. And for intensive care unit (ICU) critical care beds, which are crucial for COVID-19 treatment, the U.S. ranked first of the 24 countries with 35 per thousand population. Canada has only 12 per thousand population, the same number as Italy, which has been overwhelmed by the crisis.
An October 2019 Fraser Institute report on health care in 28 countries found that Canada ranked second highest in per capita spending, but last in access to treatment. How could this have been allowed to happen? When the crisis ends, that’s a question Canadians grieving for their lost loved ones will want answered. But that answer is already clear. Canada is the only country in the world that outlaws private health care. Prime ministers, premiers and health-care administrators have known for years that our government-run monopoly system was suffering from the dual afflictions of unsustainable cost growth and ever lengthening wait lists. Meanwhile, anti-private sector unions and other entrenched interests vigorously perpetuated the myth that Canada had the “world’s best health system” and stoked fear of “for profit” health care.
With infections rising each day, Canadian doctors face the daunting prospect of deciding who will be treated and who will not. Those life-and-death decisions must be made, not only for patients with COVID-19, but for other seriously ill patients who are displaced.
https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/gwyn-morgan-after-this-crisis-is-behind-us-we-must-fix-our-dangerous-health-care-system
