Doctors Manitoba raises the alarm about surgery backlogs as COVID-19 cases rise – CBC
Surgeries cancelled to create space in intensive care for growing number of COVID-19 patients
Nov 15, 2021
The organization that represents doctors in Manitoba is raising the alarm after the province announced it will postpone some surgeries to increase intensive care capacity in the wake of rising COVID-19 numbers.
Over the course of the pandemic, roughly 130,000 surgical and diagnostic procedures have been postponed, said Dr. Kristjan Thompson, the president of Doctors Manitoba and an emergency department physician at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg.
“That’s not just a number. Those are people. Those are Manitobans. Those are people who are waiting in pain, who are suffering, waiting in uncertainty,” he said in an interview on Sunday.
“I can’t replace their hips or their knees. I can’t take their gallbladder out. I can treat their symptoms, their pain, their nausea, but those are just Band-Aid solutions.”
