Carpal tunnel surgery does not require an OR, sedation or the use of so much medical personnel. It can be done with local freezing in an office by a doctor: using the above mentioned scenario, it would cost tens of thousands of dollars which a public hospital would never spend unnecessarily. Also, 99.99999% of these surgeries are one hand at a time lest they leave the person with the inability to perform even basic personal hygiene, much less lose their ability to use ASL to communicate.
A doctor would not just remove someone from their medication cold turkey. They would either adjust the dosage or taper the patient off.