Years to go in dealing with surgery backlog caused by COVID: Merriman

Saskatchewan’s premier has said he hopes Saskatchewan is coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic now, but it seems the ripple effects in the health system are likely to continue for years to come.

This week, Health Minister Paul Merriman said the surgical backlog is around 30,000 surgeries — and there are still many that have yet to get on that list.

The problem is something Merriman said the government is working on — and a surgical plan was released in December that talks about increasing capacity by 7,000.

Merriman said a new surgical unit is being opened in Regina which will be able to do up to 1,000 more surgeries per year. The minister also said the government is looking at increasing surgeries done in the summer, which is a time when volumes traditionally go down.

“This is all steps in the right direction to be able to address our surgical backlog and this isn’t going to be done overnight. This is going to take a couple of years to be able to do that but, in meeting with my officials and talking to doctors, we’re confident that we can tackle that number,” said Merriman.

Merriman said they’re putting everything on the table and he’s hoping the backlog will be dealt with in the next five years.

However, he said that depends on a lot of things, like what happens with COVID, what happens with the surgeons in the province, and what happens with capacity in intensive care units.

The minister noted surgeries have to be book-ended with availability of the proper scans beforehand and the proper care afterward.

“If they just get the surgery done and the post-op isn’t there and we don’t have that therapeutic services, then we could be creating another problem down the road,” said Merriman.

Merriman said health officials are doing everything they can to not only deal with the surgery backlog but make sure that health care is strong and sustainable in the long term.

When asked how close the health-care system is to “normal,” Merriman replied he — as a health minister who started on the file six months into the pandemic — hasn’t seen normal yet.

“I would say it’s pretty close to normal, but in saying that, I want to quantify that things can change very quickly,” said Merriman.

At last check, Merriman said the full Saskatchewan health-care system is at 90 per cent capacity for medical beds and about 80 per cent capacity for ICUs — though some areas are worse off than others, with Saskatoon’s hospitals currently over capacity.

Merriman said he hopes the system will be back to a sustainable level soon, and he believes it’s getting back to a typical capacity.

The provincial budget is to be released on Wednesday, and while Merriman couldn’t give specifics on what will be on the ledgers for health, he did say the government has announced some things already and so it’ll have to put some money behind it.

He said officials are looking at a lot of budget options on the surgical side as well as mental health and addictions, continuing care aides, and some human resources issues.