A Manitoba man received notice only hours before his triple bypass surgery was set to take place at a Winnipeg Hospital on Friday that the surgery was cancelled.
Steve Garbutt of Rapid City Manitoba along with his wife Joan made the almost three hour trip into Winnipeg in preparation for his surgery and Joan said that Steve was able to get all his blood work and his Covid-19 test done for the pre-op the day before the scheduled surgery and everything went well but ultimately got the call about 12 hours before the scheduled time.
The couple waited in the city until Saturday in case the surgery was rescheduled for the next day but received a call to say all cardiac surgeries had been cancelled. They aren’t the only residents in the province to have surgeries cancelled due to staff shortages.
Doctors Manitoba released an estimate of the number of surgeries backlogged in the province and it sits at approximately 152,000.
The province is planning an announcement on Wednesday about the surgery backlogs across Manitoba.
