Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart performs surgery. Health care experts have signed a letter sent to BC Health Minister Adrian Dix, calling for attention to the crisis in specialty health care. When the letter was published Wednesday, it was signed by 26 doctors, a number that has since grown to more than 130. This includes Dr. Cassandra Lane Dielwart, President of the British Columbia Orthopedic Association. “I think that number will continue to grow as we get the letter out there.” Castanet spoke with Dr. Dielwart while in between surgeries. “I think everyone is feeling the stress of the health care system right now. Like for me, right now, in between, I have two more to go and I don’t even know if I’m going to get the last one because I don’t have a cleaner.” Dr. Dielwart says that not having a cleaner to clean the rooms is an example of the small things affecting the system. around the judgment of the family doctor. Every day, we struggle in our health care system, and it’s time for people to pay attention.” The letter states that approximately one million patients are waiting to see a specialist doctor in BC and calls for a meeting to discuss the issues and possible solutions. “In some specialties, there just won’t be enough people. In other areas, it might be too remote and a specialist can’t get out there. There are so many different problems. I can’t wait for the health minister to know how to fix everything,” said Dr. Dilwart. “But listen to us, listen to the people who are doing the work, let’s have a conversation, let’s talk about what these problems are and how we can best address them together.” As of Thursday, there had been no response from Dix, but this is not the first letter Dr. Dielwart has sent. She wrote a similar letter about her area of ​​expertise in the spring. “No response. I had sent a letter specifically about orthopedics in March, and there was no meeting. So we really took it to the next level.” Dr. Dielwart says the doctors who have signed the letter say their primary concern is patient safety. An excerpt from the letter says, “long wait times for surgery are the most well-known, but the crisis in wait times spans the entire spectrum of specialty care. Here are some of the countless examples:

A patient with sudden hearing loss who if seen earlier would not have permanent hearing loss. Over 16,000 people are waiting for an echocardiogram at Vancouver Coastal Health alone. Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island patients with new cancer diagnoses wait 2-3 months for their first oncologist visit. A lone pulmonologist at Northern Health, unable to recruit colleagues, has had to close her practice to less urgent referrals for the past two years just to catch up and continue to see emergencies, meanwhile patients have to travel hundreds of kilometers to see the next nearest Specialist. One of the few remaining dermatologists at Fraser Health overwhelmed with 60 to 100 new referrals a day has been forced to limit accepting new referrals to only the most urgent cases. Patients waiting on hold for weeks for their lab results and surgical pathology due to long delays in our labs. A 3-year-old with possible autism has been waiting more than 18 months for a formal assessment, while her anxiety-stricken parents are left in limbo without support. Internal patients BC forced to travel hundreds of kilometers just to get simple x-rays because local waiting times are untenable.

Dr Dielwart says she hopes this move will get the minister’s attention.

“Firstly it would be an acknowledgment from the health minister to say ‘yes, the health system is collapsing.’ Whenever we sound the alarm, it really seems like there’s a lot of defensiveness about all the good stuff. And of course, there are good things that have happened. But you also have to admit where we struggle. Without really recognizing it, the health system is in crisis, how do you change it?” “But the problem is so deep. You can’t just throw a bunch of money at a broken system. So I really feel, I feel like you really have to work together to say, how do we really change this?” Dr. Dielwart says these issues didn’t start with COVID-19, and solutions will take time and effort from health professionals and politicians. “We’ve been struggling with this in Canada for many, many, many, many years. If you look at the estimated one million people on a waiting list to see specialists, all of those numbers are people waiting for answers. These are people and we have to start to pay attention to them”.