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home / 世界杯决赛2022

organ donations restarted, but surgeries stalled by covid-19

saskatchewan faces staffing shortages and high covid-19 hospitalizations that are weighing down efforts to complete postponed procedures.

by zak vescera

nov 30 2021
read time 3 minute read
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saskatchewan’s health minister says officials are finalizing a plan to climb a mountain of delayed surgeries built up over months of pandemic pressure.

officials announced tuesday that the province’s organ donation program, on hold since late september, has finally resumed, part of an “aggressive” effort to redeploy staff conscripted from their old jobs to manage record numbers of people with covid-19 in the province’s hospitals and intensive care units.
saskatchewan still faces critical staffing shortages and high volumes of people severely sick with covid-19 that are weighing down its efforts to complete postponed procedures. health minister paul merriman said he expects this will be a long-standing problem.
“our health-care system has been on and off since march of 2020. we have a backlog, and we have to address that, and it’s not going to be fixed overnight,” merriman said, adding that officials hope to release a “detailed plan” as early as next week.
minister of health paul merriman says a plan to climb saskatchewan’s surgical backlog may come as early as next week.
minister of health paul merriman says a plan to climb saskatchewan’s surgical backlog may come as early as next week. troy fleece / regina leader-post
the government said tuesday that it has met “aggressive” targets to return 157 staff back to their jobs, including hiv educators in northern saskatchewan, surgery teams in estevan and rehabilitation staff in regina. some hospitals in regional centres like prince albert, melfort and nipawin report that surgical service levels are back at 100 per cent.
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however, regina and saskatoon — the two largest, most crucial centres — are operating at 60 and 80 per cent of normal capacity, respectively.
saskatchewan health authority emergency operations chief derek miller said 350 staff in acute care have yet to be repatriated to their usual jobs because of the continued strain on the province’s acute care system. there were still 37 people with covid-19 in intensive care on tuesday, plus four critically patients who had been transferred to ontario.
“we are really trying to balance this,” miller said. “obviously we need to maintain the covid response and sustain icu capacity. we’re still experiencing high demand in icu, especially in saskatoon and regina … which is limiting the ability to redeploy staff to support services like surgeries.”
leading physicians like provincial surgery head dr. ivar mendez have said the government needs an “out of the box” plan to address that backlog that incorporates expanded recruitment, training and more paid hours for staff to catch up on the more than 35,000 postponed surgeries. they warn failure to act quickly means people’s conditions may deteriorate, leading to worse outcomes and an even greater burden on the medical system.
dr. ivar mendez is one of the physician leaders in saskatchewan who has encouraged the government to pull out all the stops to reduce the surgical backlog.
dr. ivar mendez is one of the physician leaders in saskatchewan who has encouraged the government to pull out all the stops to reduce the surgical backlog. michelle berg / saskatoon starphoenix
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staffing has emerged as a critical concern.
miller said the organ donor program, for example, couldn’t return at its full capacity in saskatoon because of staffing shortages that have “arisen through this deployment.” that program’s two-month pause caused the sha to miss approximately 35 potential opportunities for a donation, spokesman doug dahl said, adding that not all of those would have progressed to a donation.
the government says there are also more than 20 operating room nurse job openings in regina that have stymied a return to full service in that crucial centre.
merriman said the government was weighing its options before the next budget, including overseas recruitment, more local training and more flexible internal hours.
he conceded that jurisdictions across the country and beyond are all fighting over the same limited pool of highly-trained staff who can perform such procedures.
“the challenge right now is everyone in canada and north america is similar. they’re all looking for more specialized nurses in the icu … no different from us.”

—  with leader-post files from alec salloum 

zvescera@postmedia.com
twitter.com/zakvescera

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