Manitoba wait times for cataract, knee surgeries among worst nationwide in first 18 months of pandemic: report

An analysis of how Canadian wait times for surgeries and diagnostic tests were impacted in the first year-and-a-half of the pandemic suggests Manitoba lagged behind nearly all provinces when it came to cataract and knee surgeries.

The latest report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information out late Monday nightcompares wait times among provinces in the first 18 months of the pandemic. That window doesn't include data on how the Delta, Omicron and itssubvariant, known asBA.2, coronavirus waves impacted wait times.

From April 2020 to September 2021, CIHIanalysis suggests just over one third 38per cent of Manitobanson the wait list for knee surgery received the procedure within the national benchmark time frame of six months.

Manitoba trailed all provinces on this front, save for Saskatchewan, and came up about 20 per cent short of the Canadian average. Pre-pandemic, about 70 per cent of patients nationwide got theirknees replaced within the recommended time span.

"In our more recent data we see some some improvements, but we still see wait times lagging, in particularfor Manitoba we see that knee replacementpatients are still waiting quite a bit longer than pre-pandemic," said Erin Pichora, manager of health system analytics at CIHI.

Only three provinces fared worsethan Manitoba as far as hip surgery wait times were concerned; 55 per cent of Manitobans needing the surgery had it done within six months, compared to 65 per cent nationwide.

Pichora said Manitoba is near the middle of the pack for wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The median wait time was at66 days for an MRI scan during the period analyzed,compared to the 55 days it was pre-pandemic, she said.

Manitoba also came in second last for cataract surgery wait times in the opening 18 months of the pandemic. According to CIHI, 39 per cent of those patients received the surgery within the 112-day benchmark period, compared to 66 per cent nationally (70 per cent pre-pandemic).

Pichorasaid a number of provinces were able to rampcataract surgeries back up as the pandemic dragged on.

"With Manitoba the cataract surgeries rebounded better actually than pre-pandemic, but if we look across the country is still quite a bit lower than most other provinces."

In Alberta, 64 per cent of cataract patients had the surgery done within 112 days,and 63 per cent did in Saskatchewan.

Long waits pre-pandemic

Manitoba's hip, knee and cataract surgery woes predate the pandemic. In 2019, CIHI reported figures suggesting the percentage of Manitobans receiving those procedures within the recommended period had dropped for the fourth year in a row.

Linda Kroeker, 71, said she has been on a knee replacement wait list for three years.

She started off the pandemic using a cane, then later a walker, and isnow in a wheelchair after suffering numerous falls, including one that landed her in hospital last year for six weeks with a broken hip.

Kroeker is also on prescription pain medication.

"I had so many falls and just went through a lot of depression feeling so debilitated and feeling like I couldn't do anything to help other people or help myself," said the retired senior. "I went through a lot of ups and downs sometimes crying myself to sleep at night because I'm worrying so much about when am I going to get it done."

Kroekerlearned last month her knee was in such bad shape that it qualified her for the surgery twoweeks from now, she said.

'Never going to catch up'

Seniors' advocate and retired nurse of four decades TrishRawsthornequestioned why Manitoba's cataract surgery wait times were as long as they were pre-pandemic, given similarly aging populations in some other provinces.

"In a couple of years, I don't know where we'll be at, because it's just an age-related situation ... we're never going to catch up," she said.

The findings underscore why Manitoba needs to increase the number of surgeries it's performing to chip away at the backlog, said Rawsthorne.

"Otherwise, it'll just be like a rolling stone gathering moss until it reaches downhill, and we're just going to wait for more complications to occurand have more severity and then actually [have] hospitalized people," she said.

Rawsthorne pointed out the CIHI data is based on those on wait lists, and doesn't reflect those who may need a procedure who may not be counted as such on official records.

She herselfis slated to get cataract surgery on her left eye on Thursday after being first diagnosed about three-and-a-halfyears ago. When the pandemic hit, she postponed going for follow-up checkups with her eye doctorout of a concern she could be exposed to COVID-19.

By early this year her condition had deteriorated to the point that she struggled to read. She got on an official wait list after a visit with her doctor this February.

"He said, 'I'm surprised you can read anything,'" said Rawsthorne. "I am very excited.... I want to be able to see and read books again."