Right-Touch Regulation 2021
1,876
ICRC Decisions
47 %
of Cases Managed through Early Resolution
4,173
Complaints Received
Complaints
The COVID-19 pandemic ’ s impact on the health of Canadians was much broader than the effects of contracting the virus itself .
A report commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association found that delayed and missed health care may have contributed to more than 4,000 excess deaths not related to COVID-19 between August and December 2020 .
Numerous forms of care were delayed , cancelled or otherwise affected by the pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021 .
Although cancer screening services gradually resumed beginning in May 2020 , they had yet to reach pre-pandemic levels as of December 2020 . And going into 2021 , there was a backlog of more than one milion Pap tests , mammograms and fecal tests , states the report entitled “ A Struggling System : Understanding the Health Care Impacts of the Pandemic .”
The report also quantifies the backlog in eight selected procedures . The number of days lost to the pandemic ranges from at least 46 days for breast cancer surgeries to at least 118 days for hip replacement surgeries .
Given this context , it may not be surprising that CPSO received more complaints than any year previous .
In 2021 , we received 4,173 complaints – a 24 % increase over 2020 .
Many of the complaints were indeed pandemicrelated and outside of physician control , e . g cancellations in surgeries , long wait times and public health measures .
14 CPSO ANNUAL REPORT 2021