Health care backlog could take years to clear

The COVID-19 pandemic has put an “incredible stress” on Canada’s health care system to the point where it will take seven to 10 years to clear up the backlog, a Medavie Blue Cross webinar was told. 

Dr. Arif Bhimji, a medical consultant with Medavie, said the health care system was operating at 85 per cent-90 per cent at all times pre-COVID. But when COVID-19 hit, that 10 per cent-15 per cent remainder was quickly used up, causing many elective surgeries to be postponed. 

In fact, said Dr. Bhimji, about 560,000 fewer surgeries were performed during the pandemic than had been the case before it arrived. 

Not an easy fix  

“We will face significant challenges over the next few years,” he said. “Unless we spend more money, unless we change the system, we will continue to fall behind with respect to these non-urgent surgeries,” he said. “But this is not an easy fix.”

Unlike Canada, most health-care systems in the world have a two-tiered system—one that is publicly funded and the second that is private, he noted. In the United States, which has this two-level system, hospitals operate at about a 60 per cent capacity rate and were not hit as hard as in Canada during the pandemic. 

As it now stands, some 1.4 million Canadians are waiting for treatment, up 34 per cent from 2019, said Kathryn Gregory, Director of Client Services, Medical Confidence Inc., a subsidiary of CloudMD Software & Services. 

Gregory cited statistics from the Canadian Medical Association, which estimated the wait is costing $19 billion in lost earnings, inefficiencies in health care and costs for those needing supplementary care. 

Wait times are basically divided into two specialties: orthopedic surgery and psychiatry, she said. According to provincial wait times, 60 per cent of doctors report finding a specialist as their biggest challenge, while 20 per cent of referrals go amiss due to “lost faxes.” Some 25 per cent of referrals require a second referral because the first one was incorrect, with 55 per cent of specialists saying they don’t have enough information to make a proper diagnosis and need more tests. 

Waiting for a specialist 

Waiting for a specialist can cause major health issues for some patients, said Olivier Pagé, Director of Group Disability Management Operations with Medavie Blue Cross. 

Medavie Blue Cross partnered with Medical Confidence last year to provide plan members on disability with a program that personalizes healthcare navigation and reduces the wait time to see a specialist. 

The program, called MedExcellence, was set up so members on disability can get earlier access to a specialist – 220 days sooner, on average. The company says disability insurers who have used the program have seen an average six-month reduction in length of disability. 

Personalized approach 

This personalized approach includes more than 150 professionals (including kinesiologists, social workers and rehabilitation specialists) who perform full assessments and support services, said Pagé. It also helps people self-manage illnesses like asthma and COPD, diabetes, hypertension, aids those wanting to quit smoking and also provides virtual healthcare. 

“There’s been at least one good thing about the pandemic and it’s the acceleration and adoption of virtual care,” said Pagé. “Canadians can receive timely access to quality care where and when they need it… empowering them to take charge of their health on their terms.”