(Quebec) Even if Quebec manages to reduce the list of patients who have been waiting for surgery for more than a year, the increase in new applications is weighing on Christian Dubé’s balance sheet. Overall, the waiting list increased by 5,000 names in August, which was marked by the holidays.
Posted at 1:13 p.m
The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) will publish an update on surgical waiting lists on Minister Christian Dubé’s dashboard on Tuesday. As of August 12, there were approximately 158,427 patients waiting to go under the knife in Quebec. A month later (September 9), according to Quebec data, there are around 163,463 people on the waiting list.
On the positive side, progress continues to make progress on operations that have been waiting for more than a year and are in the Health Minister’s sights. Christian Dubé, in collaboration with the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ), has developed a catch-up plan to address the list of patients who have been waiting for surgery for more than 12 months. Within a month, that list was reduced by 346 names.
This confirms a downward trend since last year. In fact, in September 2022 this list included no fewer than 22,000 patients and in the last report there were around 14,000. Quebec wants to return to pre-pandemic levels, which were around 2,500, “no later than” December 31, 2024. An interim target of 7,600 has been set for March 31, 2024.
The number of oncological operations (waiting times over 56 days) is also decreasing and fell from 892 to 755 from August to September.
Patients wait more than a year
- September 2022: 22,197
- September 2023: 14,296 (-346 since August 12, 2023)
Patients are waiting for an operation
- September 2022: 161,175
- September 2023: 163,463 (+5036 since August 12, 2023)
Source: MSSS
Overall assessment on the rise
The fact is that the overall balance continues to rise despite this progress. The increase is most noticeable in new applications for operations. The number of operations waiting 0 to 6 months increased by 4,706 cases from August to September, from 110,283 to 114,989. The more moderate increase was also seen in operations waiting 6 to 12 months (33,502 to 34,178, August to September).
This means there is a net increase in the balance sheet as there are more than 163,463 operations pending in Quebec. This is an increase of 5,036 from August 12th to September 9th.
The activity rate in operating rooms averages 74% in hospitals in Quebec.
The number of operations carried out also tends to approach the pre-pandemic volume. In fact, the annual total currently stands at 177,889 operations performed. This is the highest volume since 2020 for the same period.