BC Man’s Cancelled Transplant Surgery Throws Spotlight on Health Specialist Shortage

A ambulance drives past the emergency entrance of Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, on April 9, 2021. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) said it is investigating after a staffing shortage led to the cancellation of a B.C. man’s lung transplant surgery.

Conservative MLA Brennan Day brought up the issue in the B.C. Legislature on Feb. 19, saying one of his constituents had contacted him after the man’s lung transplant was cancelled.

“He rushed to Vancouver General Hospital from the Island, late on a Friday night in February, only two weeks ago, only to have his surgery cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of a perfusionist—another casualty of B.C.’s chronic health care staffing crisis.” Day said during Question Period.

Perfusionists are key members in a cardiac surgical team, according to VCH. They provide technical support and patient care.

Day noted that part of the province’s health care staffing shortage include perfusionists.

“I think this is a pretty shocking example of what the staffing shortage is doing to British Columbians’ health care,” he told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

Day’s constituent is now waiting for another organ to become available before the surgery can be rescheduled.

”Luckily, he’s not an extremely rare type, so he may get another opportunity, but it’s possible that he never does.”

VCH said it is conducting an investigation into the situation and would make “operational adjustments” as appropriate.

VCH told The Epoch Times in an email that they have seen a combination of patient volumes and human resource challenges that has caused “staffing challenges” among perfusionists.

VCH acknowledged a staffing shortage led to the cancellation of a lung transplant surgery for a patient, but could not confirm the patient’s details.

“At the time, there were multiple competing emergent patient demands placed on the perfusionist team and as a result they did not have the added capacity to support a transplant surgery,” VCH said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

The statement also said it was the first time a procedure was cancelled due to perfusionist staffing challenges since the lung transplant program started in 2002. It also said that if organs are not expected to be utilized they were lost.

Minister of Health Josie Osborne said the government was working on attracting more specialists to the health care industry.

“I can only imagine how difficult that must have been to have that surgery cancelled at the last minute,” Osborne said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. “This again just speaks to the urgency of the work that we are doing right now in B.C. to attract specialists.”

She said that several specialists were needed across the provincial health care system.

A 2024 white paper from the Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion (CSPC) said the industry is facing a staffing crisis.

It noted that 38 vacancies were reported in Canada last year. An additional 19 vacancies are expected, with a further 49 vacancies expected in the next five years.

The CSPC said that 12 perfusionists left Canada to go work in the United States over the past three years. About 24 percent of current Canadian perfusionists are expected to retire in the next five years, according to the white paper. In addition, 38 percent of those under 40 years said they plan to leave the profession entirely in the next few years.

“This isn’t just a critical issue today,” Day said. “It’s an issue that if this government doesn’t address it, it will get worse very quickly.”

He noted that in B.C., the average salary for a perfusionist is $145,000, while Alberta pays $165,000. In Washington state, the average salary is $200,000.

“So on top of the high taxes we’re paying in British Columbia and the outrageous cost of housing in British Columbia, we’re also not even paying market rate to get these people in.”