(Quebec) The Legault government still cannot make up for the delays in surgery caused by the pandemic, despite its plan presented in June. The number of patients waiting for more than six months has even increased by almost 12%.
Quebec has set itself the goal of reducing the waiting list for surgery to 100,000 people by March 2023, under its catch-up plan. It has also set wait-reduction targets for this fall.
Thus, for the month of October, he predicted that 150,000 people would be on the list and set himself the objective of reducing to 42,000 the number of patients waiting for more than six months. “The actions are aimed at reducing the list by starting with the patients who have been there the longest,” he assured in his catch-up plan.
However, 151,352 patients are on the waiting list as of October 9. Above all, 35% of them – 52,512 people – have been waiting for more than six months, according to the most recent statistics from the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Quebec therefore misses by 25% the target that it considers itself a priority.
In June, there were 47,000 patients who had been waiting for more than six months. This means that their number has increased by nearly 12%. The delays are piling up instead of disappearing, for the time being.
Of the 52,212 people who have been on the waiting list for more than six months, 18,208 have been waiting for more than a year. Quebec, however, was trying to get that number to 14,000 in October.
Operating rooms in Quebec have not yet regained their full volume of activity. However, the government expected surgical activities to return to their pre-pandemic level by October.
As of October 9, the level of surgical activities, taking into account the contribution of private clinics, reached 87% on average compared to the volume of operations before the pandemic. Rather, we expected 100%. Quebec has set itself the goal of reaching 115% within one year, a threshold that would allow, over time, not only to take charge of the regular flow of requests for surgery, but also to make up for the accumulated delays.
These results can be explained in part by the even larger than expected effects of the staff shortage.
511 new cases of COVID-19
The number of COVID-19 cases has increased slightly in recent days in Quebec, while the death curve attributed to the pandemic remains on a plateau. The province reported 511 new cases on Friday, bringing the seven-day daily average to 430.
Overall, the one-week trend remains down 8%, but Quebec has nevertheless observed an increase for four days, a sign that a plateau or an uptrend is emerging. The unvaccinated continue to make up the majority of new COVID-19 cases, despite making up just 21% of the population. An average of 275 new cases per day are observed in these, a rate of 152 per million unvaccinated. Adequately vaccinated people represent 142 cases on average, a rate of 22 per million people.
Nunavik continues to have the highest rate of spread in the province, with 115 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. By way of comparison, the second region in terms of number of cases, Laval, has a rate of 8 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
One death was also added to the toll, bringing to 11,491 the number of Quebecers having lost their lives due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. This death brings the daily average to 4. The death trend has thus been stable for over a month now. Indeed, despite the drop in cases since mid-September, the average has remained on a plateau of 4 deaths per day for 38 days now.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 fell slightly on Friday to 250, down 4 from the day before. Of these, 68 are in intensive care.
The downward trend in hospitalizations persists, but the pace has slowed. The number of people hospitalized has fallen by only 4% over a week and the figures remain stable in intensive care.
To date, 79.3% of Quebecers of all ages have received at least one dose of vaccine and 76.9% are considered fully immunized.
The fourth wave continues to affect more young Quebecers than during the previous waves. Thus, in spring 2020, people declared positive were on average 53 years old, those hospitalized 72 years old and the dead 85 years old. This fall, people tested positive are on average 31 years old, people hospitalized 59 years old and dead 77 years old.