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The COVID-19 pandemic has created a massive backlog of medical procedures in Ontario.
On Wednesday, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) announced that 15.9 million medical services about one per person in the province had been put off because of COVID; MRI and CT scans topped the list, with knee and hip surgeries, cataract surgery and coronary artery bypass grafts close behind.
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People have also delayed pap smears, mammograms and colon cancer screening, not to mention the routine doctor’s office checks for blood pressure or diabetes.
It was bad before the pandemic. Now it’s getting worse.
“We are only scratching the surface in our understanding of how this pandemic has impacted Canadians’ mental health,” she said. “This abrupt and overwhelming change to our way of life will no doubt have a profound impact on the number of disability claims filed across the country.”
Daya has a ringside seat to the exigencies of COVID as she deals with long-term disability claims that have been denied. What she’s seeing in those claims is a worrying uptick in mental health disorders.
(It’s the insurance companies that call the shots, she explained; the employer takes their cue from the insurer.)