Sudburians still waiting too long for joint replacement

Wait times for hip and knee replacements have fallen in the northeast, but are still higher than the provincial average, the North East Local Health Integration Network is reporting.

In December 2014, the wait time for a hip replacement across northeastern Ontario, for nine out of 10 patients, was 258 days. The wait time for the surgical procedure two years earlier was 409 days.

“Overall, we're performing much better,” said Martha Auchinleck, a senior director with the North East LHIN. “The main factors are really doing increased volumes.”

But the provincial target for knee replacements is a wait time of 182 days.

Hip replacements had a wait time of 206 days for nine out of 10 patients in December 2014, compared to 279 days in the same period in 2012.

The provincial target for hip replacements is also 182 days.

For Sudbury, the numbers were not as positive. From December 2014 to February 2015 – the latest numbers available – nine out of 10 patients at Health Sciences North had their knee replacement surgery within 305 days, and received hip replacements after 265 days.

The provincial wait times for both surgeries, during the same time period, were 208 days and 186 days, respectively.

Auchinleck said joint assessment centres in five municipalities – Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Parry Sound – have helped reduce long wait times in the northeast.

“If you're a patient who is in need of surgery, you'll get a referral to go to the joint assessment centre and a physiotherapist will do an assessment on you,” she said.

Since 2010, the joint assessment centres have completed more than 19,000 assessments on northerners, and found 67 per cent of patients did not require a surgeon’s consultation.

Those patients can opt for interventions other than surgery.

“More northerners continue to benefit from timely assessments through the assessment centres to get more care options, referral to the first available surgeon and information about how to manage their pain,” said Dr. Eric Robinson, an orthopedic surgeon at Health Sciences North, in a North East LHIN press release.