On a rainy Tuesday morning at Vancouver General Hospital, Elaine Chong sits quietly in a waiting room, flipping through a dog-eared magazine. At 67, she’s been waiting 14 months for knee replacement surgery, a procedure that pre-pandemic might have taken half that time.
“Every morning I wake up and wonder if today’s the day they’ll call,” she tells me, adjusting her position to minimize the pain. “My grandkids are growing up, and I can’t even take them to the park anymore.”
Elaine’s story is playing out in hospitals across Canada, where surgical backlogs have become a painful reality for patients nationwide. Despite healthcare systems working diligently to recover from COVID-19 disruptions, new data reveals that Canadians are still waiting significantly longer for surgeries than they did before the pandemic.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s latest report, median wait times for priority procedures remain 20-30% higher than 2019 levels, with some provinces faring worse than others. British Columbia and Ontario show some improvement, while Quebec and Alberta continue to struggle with mounting backlogs.
Dr. Sarah Newbery, a family physician in Marathon, Ontario and assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, has witnessed the human cost of these delays firsthand. “We’re seeing patients whose conditions have deteriorated while waiting. What might have been a straightforward procedure becomes more complex, requiring longer recovery times and sometimes poorer outcomes.”
The numbers tell a sobering story. Hip replacements now average a 9-month wait in many provinces, compared to 6 months pre-pandemic. Knee replacements like Elaine’s have stretched to 12-15 months in several regions. Cataract surgeries, among the most common procedures for seniors, have wait times extending beyond recommended clinical guidelines in 8 out of 10 provinces.
When I visited Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto last month, surgical director Dr. Avery Johnson explained that the backlog isn’t simply about pandemic shutdowns anymore. “We’re dealing with a complex aftermath. Staff burnout has led to shortages, particularly among nurses. Meanwhile, an aging population means demand continues to grow faster than our capacity.”
This creates what healthcare economists call a “compounding problem” – as delays grow, conditions worsen, making surgeries more complicated and requiring longer hospital stays, which further reduces capacity for new procedures.
For Indigenous communities and rural Canadians, these challenges are magnified. In Northern Manitoba, patients routinely travel hundreds of kilometers for surgical consultations, only to face extended waits for actual procedures.
“The system has always had inequities,” notes Alika Lafontaine, past president of the Canadian Medical Association. “But the pandemic exposed and widened these gaps. Now we’re seeing the consequences of decades of underinvestment in healthcare infrastructure.”
Provincial health ministries have implemented various strategies to address the backlogs. Saskatchewan’s surgical initiative has contracted private clinics to perform publicly funded day surgeries. British Columbia has extended operating room hours and created dedicated surgical centers. Ontario has invested $300 million in its Surgical Recovery Strategy, focusing on hip and knee replacements and cataract surgeries.
These efforts have produced mixed results. The Canadian Medical Association Journal published research showing that provinces prioritizing centralized wait lists and dedicated surgical pathways have made more progress than those relying solely on additional funding.
The human dimension of these statistics becomes clear when speaking with patients like Marco Santini, a 43-year-old construction worker from Hamilton waiting for spinal surgery. “I’ve been on disability for almost two years now,” he says. “The pain medication barely takes the edge off, and my mental health has tanked. My surgeon says it could be another 6-8 months.”
Healthcare advocates point to systemic solutions that could address these persistent backlogs. The Canadian Association of Radiologists has called for investments in diagnostic imaging to speed up the pathway to surgery. Others recommend centralizing surgical bookings and creating specialized surgical centers focused solely on high-volume procedures like joint replacements.
“We need to think differently about how we deliver surgical care,” says Dr. Michael Gardam, CEO of Health PEI. “The old model of having surgeons work across multiple hospitals with different teams is inefficient. Centers of excellence with dedicated teams can dramatically increase throughput while maintaining quality.”
Some bright spots have emerged. Nova Scotia’s prehabilitation programs prepare patients physically and mentally for surgery while they wait, improving outcomes when they finally reach the operating room. Quebec has successfully reduced pediatric surgical waits through coordinated provincial planning.
Back in Vancouver, Elaine Chong received unexpected news the day after our interview – her surgery was scheduled for next month due to a cancellation. “I feel like I won the lottery,” she said over the phone, her voice brightening. “But I know there are thousands still waiting. The system shouldn’t work this way.”
As Canada continues navigating the aftermath of healthcare disruptions, the path forward requires both immediate solutions and long-term structural changes. For the nearly 600,000 Canadians currently waiting for procedures, recovery can’t come soon enough.
