Millions Of Surgeries Have Been Canceled Worldwide Due To Covid-19. Here’s How Long Patients Can Expect To Wait

As the coronavirus pandemic crescendoed, many hospitals around the world became saturated with sick and critically ill patients. Personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies ran short, and countless intensive care units hit their maximum capacity.

While some medical services, such as those provided by critical care, emergency, medicine, and internal medicine units, have in some locations been drowning in work, other departments, like surgery, have had the opposite problem. To preserve PPE and limit patients’ exposure and the spread of the virus, hospitals in many parts of the world imposed a freeze on millions of elective cases, creating massive waitlists.