B.C. aims to reduce backlog of surgeries within 22 months

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s health minister says 90% of patients who had their surgery postponed during the first wave of the pandemic have now had their procedures.

Adrian Dix says operating-room hours were added to clear a backlog of surgeries that were cancelled in mid-March to ensure beds were saved for patients with COVID-19.

Non-urgent surgeries resumed two months later, and Dix says more surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses have been hired.

The minister says significantly more surgeries were done over the holiday period compared with the previous year, but outbreaks of COVID-19 at hospitals in North Vancouver, Prince George and Burnaby reduced the number of surgeries that could be performed.

He says by the third week of November, all health authorities had called more than 111,000 patients on wait-lists to ask if they were ready to reschedule their surgeries.

Dix says COVID-19 vaccinations are a priority in reducing outbreaks, but the challenge is getting more doses as the province expects to immunize about 10% of the population by March.

“I wish it were 40%, but it’s 10%.” Michael Marchbank, former CEO of Fraser Health and consultant to the Health Ministry, said in March the backlog could be cleared in 15 months, but the ministry now says that could take 22 months.

“What we have seen so far includes extending days in 11 operating rooms, adding weekends in four operating rooms, opening 23 new or unused operating rooms, maximizing our capacity in our non-contracted sites and achieving a 37% reduction in summer slowdowns,” he says.