Health Sciences Association of B.C.: ‘More than 100 cancelled in first six months of 2024 at St. Paul’s alone’
More than 100 cardiac surgeries were cancelled at St. Paul’s Hospital alone in the first six months of 2024 because of staff shortages, according to the union representing dozens of specialized health professionals.
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The union represents perfusionists (who operate heart-lung machines), X-ray, nuclear medicine and MRI technologists, physio and occupational therapists, pharmacists, dietitians, speech pathologists, biomedical engineering technologists, and respiratory therapists.
“I believe the current government is taking this issue seriously, and we’ve seen recent investments in pay increases,” Tse said. “We will be negotiating new contracts this year and we hope to make further progress with pay increases that recognize the vital importance of perfusionists and other specialized health professionals.”
Postmedia requested to speak with someone from Providence Health Care, which administers St. Paul’s Hospital, but did not heard back by publication time.
The hospital does about 1,200 cardiac surgeries a year, according to the UBC faculty of medicine, which uses the hospital for training of doctors.
The union revelations come on the heels of a Postmedia story about a Courtenay man, Don Chamberlain, who was told on the morning of Feb. 7 that two healthy lungs were available for transplant.
Postmedia originally reported that viable lungs had been discarded.
“VCH can also confirm that, unfortunately, perfusionist staffing challenges at VGH led to the postponement of a lung transplant procedure earlier this month and the loss of the donated organs,” a Vancouver Coastal Health spokesperson said in an email.
On Wednesday, after the story appeared, VCH said that the lungs had never actually been collected from the donor’s body because of the staff shortage, and said the email they’d sent the previous day was unclear.
VCH is conducting an internal review of why Chamberlain’s scheduled transplant never took place.
In B.C. there were 69 perfusionists as of June 30, 2024, down one from the previous year. Health Ministry officials reported two full-time vacancies are difficult to fill, meaning they remain unfilled after 90 days of active recruiting.
The ministry said on Wednesday that a combination of high patient volumes and high global demand for health-care workers is to blame for the perfusionist shortage.
“To help address these staffing challenges, we funded the expansion of BCIT’s cardiovascular perfusion program in 2020 – from an intake of seven students bi-annually to five students annually – with the ability to increase or decrease intake in response to health authority needs,” a ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday in an email.
Chamberlain, meanwhile is back on the waiting list for healthy lungs.
Due to turn 60 in May, he has never smoked and was a healthy outdoorsman.
A CT scan in 2022, however, showed his lungs to be in as bad a shape as a lifelong smoker in their 60s. A follow-up biopsy in 2023 confirmed he had hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a form of lung fibrosis.
The reason why the disease is also called bird-fancier’s lung is because it can be caused by repetitive exposure to airborne avian antigen, and Chamberlain had backyard chickens.
“Often, they say you’re lucky to get past three years,” he said by phone from Courtenay. “I’m into my third year here, so yeah, I won’t survive without a transplant.”