The significant decline in referrals and procedures for common cardiac conditions in Ontario following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has put patients waiting for surgeries at a higher risk of dying, according to a new study. The study, soon to be published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, highlights the impact of the pandemic on cardiac care and the importance of giving treatment to high-risk patients with other medical conditions. “In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we kept hearing stories from patients and other doctors that there were delays in care for patients with heart disease,” Harindra Wijeysundera, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and lead investigator of the study, said in a news release. “We decided to look into these claims using the Ontario database that keeps track of wait lists and wait times for individuals with heart disease who require a procedure or …