More than 130 operating rooms are closed in Quebec: surgeons are concerned

There are 134 closed operating rooms out of the 560 available across Quebec, and three-quarters of operating rooms are underutilized, according to data obtained by La Presse Canadienne through an access to information request.

The main cause is a severe shortage of personnel needed to perform surgeries. According to Patrick Charlebois, general surgeon and president of the Quebec Association of Surgery, “we are heading straight for a wall” due to increasing needs and a growing shortage.

The maximum utilization (100 per cent) of an operating room is 40 hours per week, according to the Ministry of Health. The data show that nearly 30 per cent of operating rooms have a utilization rate of less than 75 per cent, which would represent less than 30 hours per week.

“From what I understand of the methodology, the target is 85 to 90 per cent utilization because there is always a [rotation] of rooms. There is a necessary amount of time between cases that we try to minimize as much as possible by cleaning the rooms efficiently, but the fact remains that this must be done before the next patient can be admitted,” Charlebois explained in an interview.

Hospitals have long waiting lists for surgery with operating rooms available, “but they’re not running” due to a lack of staff and budget, he says. According to the data, more than three-quarters of operating rooms do not reach an 85 per cent utilization rate.

Some hospitals are performing very well for 2025-2026, such as the Montreal General Hospital (105 per cent), the Royal Victoria Hospital (104 per cent), the Montreal Neurological Hospital (99 per cent), and the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute (96 per cent).

At the bottom of the ranking are the Archipel Hospital (33 per cent) in the Magdalen Islands, the Pontiac Hospital and CHSLD (49 per cent), the Chibougamau Health Center (50 per cent) and the Dolbeau-Mistassini Hospital (52 per cent).

Impact of prioritizing patients who have been waiting for more than a year

Santé Québec wants to prioritize reducing the waiting list for patients who have been waiting for surgery for more than a year. These efforts seem to be paying off. As of Jan. 10, 2026, approximately 142,200 users were waiting for surgery in Quebec, including just over 5,000 people who had been waiting for more than a year.

Véronique Godbout, orthopedic surgeon and president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association, discusses the repercussions of Santé Québec’s strategy.

“The numbers look good for those who have been waiting a year or more, except that everything below the surface has really increased significantly, meaning the number of patients waiting between zero and twelve months,” she points out.

Charlebois agrees. He first mentions that it is commendable on the part of Santé Québec to want to move the needle on this indicator, because waiting more than a year is unreasonable. However, “there is a cost to this stubbornness in wanting to target only this group of patients,” he says, pointing out that no more patients are being operated on in the public system than before.

“This decrease in the number of patients who have been waiting for more than a year has the effect of increasing the number of patients who have been waiting for less than a year but who have surgeries that are probably a little more urgent and who end up waiting longer. So, the balloon below ‘one year’ is inflating as we skim off the patients who have been waiting for more than a year,” Charlebois points out.

On the other hand, the waiting list for orthopedic surgery may be underestimated. “In orthopedics, many centers have said to themselves, ‘since our operating time is so limited, we’re going to stop seeing new patients.’ So the number of patients who really need surgery is not currently reflected in the number of patients waiting for surgery, because there are many patients waiting for appointments who probably need surgery,” explains Godbout.

Orthopedic surgeons are currently operating an average of one and a half times per week. “The majority of orthopedists say they would be able to operate three times a week if they had the operating time,” she says.

The concrete effects of the shortage

To run an operating room, a wide range of professionals are essential, such as nurses, operating room technicians, anesthesiologists, attendants, recovery room staff, and preoperative clinic staff, in addition to having a sufficient number of hospital beds. “It takes the entire assembly line to open additional operating rooms,” Charlebois points out.

The effects of the shortage are felt on a daily basis. Just this Thursday morning, Charlebois had to delay surgery on a patient who had been waiting for nine months because a hemoglobin problem was detected in the preoperative clinic. “I’m going to cancel his operation and postpone it to allow the preoperative clinic doctor to correct his condition so that I can operate on him more safely. This is a failure of the system, a failure of care, when they had nine months to do this. But they waited until the last minute because they don’t have enough staff,” laments the surgeon.

He is concerned about the shortage of specialized medicine. “There is a lack of vision and listening on the part of the government to address this labor shortage,” he denounces.

Charlebois explains that due to population growth and aging, surgeons are not meeting all the needs. “And we’re going to be even more short of surgeons; the projections are dramatic in this regard,” he says. For years, his association has been calling for more residency positions to train surgeons. “With this, we’re heading for a wall,” he warns.

—

The Canadian Press’s health coverage is supported by a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for this journalistic content.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews