Over 2,400 children waiting for surgery at McMaster Children’s Hospital

McMaster Children’s Hospital is facing a surgical backlog with some waiting on the list well past the ideal window of treatment time.

As of May 2023, McMaster Children’s Hospital says that there are over 2,400 children waiting for surgery and doctors are concerned that there is no relief in site.

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Pediatric Surgery Chief Dr. Peterson said, “It’s completely horrible. The backlog is worse than I think anyone could have predicted.”

Some of Hamilton’s youngest patients are waiting far too long for surgeries, “The population is growing and the system didn’t grow with it. Then we had the pandemic, we had the triple threat and I think the other thing is a lot of people that weren’t being seen during our pandemic years are now being seen. It’s overwhelming.”

Over 2,400 kids remain on a waiting list at the hospital and about 63 per cent of those patients have passed the recommended wait times for operations. But some patients haven’t even made it on the waitlist yet and are still waiting to see pediatric specialists.

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“We really thought at this point we’d be taking kids off the waitlist and every month we’re putting more on. I think that’s the most stressful part of this. It’s hard to see an end to this,” Dr. Peterson said.

Staffing shortages across the hospital system are contributing to the backlog, specifically with nurses.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) has been seeing this across the province and says the nursing shortage is just one piece of the problem.

“Children in terms of sufficient funding for programs related to children, whether it’s surgical, community care, home care are absolutely deficient in terms of the funding they get from the government,” RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun said.

The province says it is spending $330 million a year on children’s health care across Ontario.

READ MORE: Ontario boosts pediatric health-care funding by $330M a year

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is calling this a historic investment and will help free up beds in the hospital and help fund its same day overnight unit.

Dr. Peterson is worried this won’t be enough. “We’re ramping up our ambulatory clinic, getting more bodies. We have x number of money but when you look at the list, it’s x number of dollars plus one or two. For my nurses, the problem is, we’re always lean.”

Dr. Peterson understands this is a difficult time for parents but encourages them to be patient and advocate for change.

On top of the surgical backlog, there are about 2,000 children waiting to see a specialist in the hospital’s developmental pediatrics and rehabilitation program. 1,200 new patients are added to the list every year but the hospital’s resources only allow them to treat 750 children annually.

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