If you need surgery, it could be two years before you get a call to have the procedure booked.
Nearly 30,000 people are on the provincial waitlist – a backlog that’s even worse due to COVID-19 pressure.
The longest waits are in orthopedics, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology (ENT). For orthopedic surgery in the Central Zone, people can expect to wait up to 355 days for a consultation, and up to an additional 560 days to get the surgery.
For access to ENT surgeries in the Central zone people can expect to wait up to 212 days for a consultation and up to 406 additional days for their surgery.
“More than 27,000 people are waiting for surgery and we haven’t yet seen a plan from this government to fix the surgery backlog. Many people are struggling through their days in pain, waiting for the call from the hospital.” said Susan Leblanc, NDP Health and Wellness spokesperson. “The Premier promised a plan to fix health care by March 31. That’s ten days from now, where is the plan?”
Meantime, thousands more are waiting for a consultation with a specialist.
The data was given to the NDP in a Freedom of Information request.
The information contained in the documents includes data that has not been publicly available, including wait times by specialty and region comparing Oct-Dec 2019 and Oct-Dec 2021, and the actual number of people waiting in each region by month for the last five years.
The wait list is worse in the Northern zone which is up almost 50 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels, and the Eastern Zone, which is up about 30 per cent. The Central zone is up about 8 per cent. The wait list in Western zone is largely stable.
