Although all of his patients have cancer, a Montreal surgeon and oncologist denounces that a lack of operating rooms means he now has to decide which patient to operate on first, to the detriment of others.
• Also read: Lack of access to operating rooms : “ There is great desperation in the troops », reacts the Association of Surgeons
“Let’s work!” drones Dr. Nader Sadeghi from the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at McGill University Health Center (MUHC), who specializes in cancers of the pharynx, mouth, neck or thyroid.
He is imploring the Quebec government to make more efforts to retain staff and free up more hospital beds, saying his situation is far from unique.
“Sometimes I don’t even have three days a month in the operating room. If I have four days, I’m happy,” laments Dr. Nader Sadeghi, indicating that the situation would be worse today than last year.
Choose the most urgent
What began with the COVID-19 pandemic has become common practice. Every week he and his colleagues meet to find out which patient is most urgent and who can wait another week or month.
” It’s disgusting […] “We have to decide which patient with which cancer we want to operate on in the next week and the others have to wait,” explains the surgeon.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MUHC
He recently had to cancel the operation of a patient who had previously undergone chemotherapy because the operation would have been completed after 3:30 p.m. Even if the doctor wanted to stay, there were no staff to support him.
Another time, an unforeseen emergency resulted in the operating room being unavailable. He had to negotiate with other surgeons to find a less urgent case and allow him to treat his patient.
“The sad thing is that people don’t even get angry anymore because it happens so often,” he said. A frustrating situation that doctors have no influence over.
For the benefit of the private sector
Dr. Sadeghi is saddened to see nurses and respiratory therapists leaving hospitals for private clinics, where the government is subcontracting more and more day operations.
According to him, we must strive to retain staff and not fall into a vicious circle. “It doesn’t work,” he notes.
He is particularly concerned about the impact on the health of patients suffering from these delays or repeated cancellations.
“If I can’t even treat my cancer patients, I can’t even treat the other diseases [tout aussi importantes] “, he emphasizes.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MUHC
His hospital is not even one of the worst in the province, with an operating room occupancy rate of over 80%. However, this number only includes the 10 rooms that the government allows for use and not the 13 that are available at the megahospital.
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