About one in three Canadians needing a new hip or knee are waiting longer than they should, but instead of turning to private clinics, researchers say a more centralized referral system could help fix the backlog.
A study published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) found that organizing referrals and surgeries through a coordinated, team-based approach could help with long wait times for hip and knee replacements.
“Canada performs poorly for access to scheduled surgery … access to care is a weakness in the Canadian health system, this has really been the Achilles heel of the Canadian health system,” said Dr. David Urbich, study author and head of the department of surgery at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
“But the good news is, there are very good solutions. They’re not difficult. They are not expensive.”
Reducing wait times for hip and knee replacement surgeries could be as simple as reorganizing how patients are referred to surgeons — no need for extra operating rooms, more surgeons or additional funding, the study argued.
I’m a surgical RN in a small hospital. We run 5 to 7 ORs for scheduled surgeries 5 days a week (how many ORs running depends on how many nurses are available to work) ALL the specialities have to share precious OR time. They are: general, urology, plastics, gynecology, ENT, dental, neuro, ophthalmology, and orthopaedics. All of these patients need and deserve to be treated ASAP, but we don’t have the space or staff to keep up with increasing demand as our population grows older. Almost every day, TWO of our ORs are dedicated to orthopaedics alone. This means the other services only have access to the OR once a week, maybe twice if we are running at full capacity. We (Nurses Union) have been yelling at the Provincial Government for YEARS, warning them about this. We were either ignored or tutted at as if we were a bunch of hysterical women. 40% of RNs currently working will be eligible to retire in 5 years. If you think it’s bad now, just wait. Once we’re gone, everyone is screwed, including us. Little wonder why MAID is legal here.