While Ottawa and the provinces are struggling to reduce surgical wait times for hips and knees, some Canadians are waiting years to see a back specialist, according to a new survey released to CTV and The Globe and Mail.
People with often crippling back problems are being forced to live with debilitating pain while they wait, said Dr. Michael Ford, a spine surgeon.
According to the informal survey of back specialists by the Canadian Spine Society, many of his colleagues have over 1,000 patients waiting for a consultation, he said.
"These people have been on waiting lists for up to six years," he told Â鶹´«Ã½.
"Well that's inhumane, that's too long. These people are in pain. They may not have a condition that's going to kill them or paralyze them, but they are in pain. That's why a growing number of these surgeons have stopped accepting any new patients rather than see their wait lists grow."
Dr. Hamilton Hall, a world-renowned spine surgeon, said in over three decades in medicine he has never seen the situation so grim.
"Well, things have changed a lot since I started. I've been in the spine business for over 30 years now and I've seen a noticeable decline in the quality in the last 10 having to do with prolonged wait times, people not getting access to the surgeons.
"There are fewer spine surgeons relative to the population then there were 30 years ago."
Hall said spine surgeons are being lured to the U.S. by higher pay. Fewer doctors are specializing in the challenging field, and Canada's aging population means there are more people with back problems needing treatment.
As a result of the sometimes years-long wait times, patients are travelling overseas to countries such as India, Germany and to the U.S. They pay up to $15,000 for the privilege of getting a consultation and surgery, often within a week.
And because Canadian back surgeons have such overwhelmingly long wait-lists, many of those surgeons pick and choose the most pressing cases -- often without even having seen the patient, Hall said.
"They are taking the cases that they perceive for whatever reason as more urgent, as more necessary. And there is a large number of people with back problems that might or might not need surgery -- fairly, we don't know."
Isabel Jefferey uses two canes to get around because of the disabling back pain she experiences daily. She has been waiting to see a specialist for almost a year.
Jefferey's family doctor suspects she requires an operation, but travelling outside the country for one isn't financially possible for her.
So, like many others, she acknowledges she will probably just have to wait until her name gets called.
"I don't know how long the wait will be for that appointment. It takes so long," she told Â鶹´«Ã½.
With a report from CTV's Avis Favaro
