Covid-19 could lead to 146 000 cancelled surgeries

More than 146 000 surgeries, including 12 000 cancer procedures, will be cancelled in South Africa due to Covid-19, possibly leading to unnecessary deaths.

This was according to new research by CovidSurg Collaborative, a research initiative formed to study the impact of Covid-19 on surgeries held by medical researchers from across the globe.

The new study also showed that over 28 million elective surgeries across the globe could be cancelled or postponed in 2020.

The research was based on a 12-week period of peak disruption to hospital services.

This as health departments around the world cancel or postpone planned surgeries, resulting in patients facing a lengthy wait before their health needs can be attended to.

One of the leading researchers of the project is UCT perioperative medicine Professor Bruce Biccard.

He said health facilities would need a continuous assessment of the situation to plan a safe resumption of elective surgery at the earliest opportunity.

“Clearing the backlog of elective surgeries will result in a significant additional cost for the national health department. The department would need additional funding and resources to clear this backlog.”

University of Birmingham senior medical lecture Aneel Bhangu said the cancellations were essential to reduce the risk of patients being exposed to Covid-19 in hospitals.

Bangu said the cancellations, however, placed a heavy burden on both patients and society.

“Patients’ conditions may deteriorate, worsening their quality of life, as they wait for rescheduled surgery. In some cases, for example, cancer, delayed surgeries may lead to unnecessary deaths.”

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Cape Town collected information from surgeons across 359 hospitals and 71 countries.

This data was statistically modelled to estimate totals for cancelled surgeries across 190 countries.

The researchers predict that worldwide 72.3% of planned surgeries would be cancelled through the peak period of Covid-19 related disruption.

Most cancelled surgeries would be for non-cancer conditions, but it also predicted that globally 2.3 million cancer surgeries will be cancelled or postponed.

Orthopaedic special surgeries will be cancelled the most, with 6.3 million orthopaedic surgeries cancelled worldwide over a 12-week period.

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