The waiting list for surgery in the Canary Islands rises by six percent in the last semester

The surgical waiting list of the hospitals of the Canarian Health Service (SCS) increased by 6% between January and June of this year compared to the last semester of 2021, despite the fact that 6.5% more interventions were carried out, according to data provided this Friday by the Minister of Health of the Canarian Government, Blas Trujillo.

In a press conference he offered together with the director of the SCS, Conrado Domínguez, Trujillo has reported that 32,918 patients are waiting in the islands to undergo surgery, of which 8,158 have been doing so for more than six months, 2% less than as of December 31, 2021, the counselor stressed.

63% of the surgical waiting list is concentrated in three specialties: traumatology, ophthalmology and general surgery.

Both Trujillo and Domínguez have stressed that the evolution of healthcare activity in the first semester of this year has followed the trend recorded in the previous year, in which surgical activity, especially, has been conditioned by the healthcare pressure of covid-19.

"The month of January recorded the highest occupancy of conventional and ICU beds of the entire pandemic", Trujillo remarked, who also stressed that, thanks to the Aborda Plan, healthcare levels have been maintained so that activity not subject to bed occupancy, such as consultations, has improved significantly, with an increase between January and June of 9.1% and a decrease in the waiting list of 2.6% in consultations compared to December 2021.

The increase in surgical procedures of 6.5%, with a total of 65,130 operations performed, shows, according to the Ministry, the effectiveness of the Aborda 2021-23 Plan, launched during the pandemic to strengthen the healthcare capacities of hospitals and reduce waiting lists and with which it is intended to improve care data in the coming months, when it is expected that the situation will normalize with respect to covid.

Domínguez stressed that there is a trend towards improvement in surgical waiting times, since despite the pressure of the covid incidence, the delay has dropped to 143.5 days on average (four months and 23 days).

As for the median -which is the statistical data that reflects that half of the patients awaiting a surgical intervention wait that number of days or less- it has been reduced by three days, standing at 86 days.

For Domínguez, this delay is still high despite the effort made by professionals during this period, but he indicated that in the last two years, since June 2020, it has been reduced by 20 days.

Regarding the waiting list for consultations, it went from 116,561 patients as of December 31, 2021 to 113,515 in June, while the average delay for a consultation with the specialist decreased by 16.3 days, standing at 101.3 days.

70% of the consultation waiting list is made up of the specialties of ophthalmology, dermatology, traumatology, rehabilitation and otolaryngology.

With regard to the waiting list for diagnostic tests, it decreased by 5.2% during the first semester of this year, standing at 22,977 people, a period in which a total of 433,375 tests were carried out, which represents an increase of 6.8% compared to December 2021. In total, 165,521 more tests were carried out than those registered in December 2021.

According to the data provided, between January and June of this year, the professionals of the SCS hospitals attended a total of 1,587,382 consultations, which represents an increase of 9.1% compared to the second semester of 2021 (132,977 more consultations).

Domínguez has reported that the Aborda Plan has allowed maintaining surgical activity at 100% in the months that it has been possible, both in public hospitals and through quota referrals, renting operating rooms in centers agreed with the SCS staff, or through fully agreed activity.

He also explained that in the months of greatest occupancy of covid beds, priority was given to outpatient surgical interventions, which do not require admission and which have registered an increase of 15% in these six months.

Both Trujillo and Domínguez, apart from self-criticism, are "happy" with the progress made thanks to the Aborda Plan and the measures applied during the summer, with which they hope to improve healthcare at the end of the year. EFE