B.C. Man’s Cancelled Transplant Surgery Exposes Health Specialist Shortage

February 27, 2025 TruthUSA

Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is currently investigating a situation where a B.C. man’s lung transplant surgery had to be canceled due to a staffing shortage.

Brennan Day, a Conservative MLA, raised the issue in the B.C. Legislature on Feb. 19, mentioning that one of his constituents had approached him after the surgery was called off.

“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 play a crucial role in a cardiac surgical team, according to VCH. They provide technical support and patient care.

Day pointed out that the shortage of perfusionists is part of the province’s health care staffing challenges.

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

The patient is currently 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 is investigating the situation and will make “operational adjustments” as necessary.

In an email response to The Epoch Times, VCH mentioned that a combination of patient volumes and human resource challenges has led to “staffing challenges” among perfusionists.

VCH acknowledged that a staffing shortage resulted in the cancellation of a lung transplant surgery, 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 stated in an email to The Epoch Times.

This incident marks the first time a procedure was canceled due to perfusionist staffing challenges since the lung transplant program began in 2002. It was also mentioned that if organs are not expected to be utilized, they are lost.

Josie Osborne, the Minister of Health, stated that the government is actively working to attract more specialists to the health care industry.

“I can only imagine how difficult that must have been to have that surgery canceled at the last minute,” Osborne expressed in a statement 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 emphasized the need for several specialists across the provincial health care system.

A 2024 white paper from the Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion (CSPC) highlighted the industry’s staffing crisis.

The paper mentioned that there were 38 vacancies reported in Canada last year. An additional 19 vacancies are expected, with an additional 49 vacancies projected in the next five years.

The CSPC pointed out that 12 perfusionists had left Canada to work in the United States in the past three years. Approximately 24 percent of current Canadian perfusionists are expected to retire in the next five years, and 38 percent of those under 40 years indicated they plan to leave the profession completely in the coming years.

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

He highlighted 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.”

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