Access to Cancer Surgery in a Universal Health Care System During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Antoine Eskander; Qing Li; Julie Hallet; Natalie Coburn; Timothy P Hanna; Jonathan Irish; Rinku Sutradhar

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.1104

Access to Cancer Surgery in a Universal Health Care System During the COVID-19 Pandemic

JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Mar 1;4(3):e211104. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.1104.

Authors

Antoine Eskander^{1

2

3}, Qing Li¹, Julie Hallet^{1

2

4}, Natalie Coburn^{1

2

4}, Timothy P Hanna^{1

5

6}, Jonathan Irish³, Rinku Sutradhar^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ ICES, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario.

Abstract

This cohort study quantifies the cancer surgical backlog and determines whether there were differences in sociodemographic and hospital characteristics among patients undergoing cancer surgery in the pre– and peri–coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) periods.

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / statistics & numerical data
COVID-19*
Delivery of Health Care
Female
Health Services Accessibility / statistics & numerical data*
Hospitalization / statistics & numerical data
Hospitals / statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neoplasms / surgery*
Ontario
Retrospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2
Surgical Procedures, Operative / statistics & numerical data*
Universal Health Care*