More surgeries are being conducted in Canada now than before the pandemic but wait times have increased, a new report suggests.
The newly released report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information examined the wait times for hip and knee replacements, cataract surgeries, cancer operations, MRIs, and CT scans for the years 2019 to 2024.
It found that increasing health care demands due to population growth and aging, as well as health workforce shortages have led to the increase in wait times. A shortage of health-care personnel, particularly surgical staff, is another element leading to extended wait times.
“Provinces are using many strategies to provide faster access to surgeries, yet wait times for some procedures are still longer than they were before the pandemic,” the report’s authors wrote. …