UPDATE 5:30 p.m. Oct 6 – B.C.’s health Minister says non-urgent scheduled surgeries will resume at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops this week.

Adrian Dix made those comments Tuesday, noting there have been 1,384 surgeries postponed in the province between September 5 and October 2.

“Last week I reiterated our commitment to every patient who has had their surgeries delayed that they will soon have a phone call to reschedule their surgeries,” Dix said. “Every one of these surgeries is important.”

In a statement, the Ministry of Health says there were 439 non-urgent surgeries that were postponed at Royal Inland Hospital between Aug. 6 and Oct. 5. In that same time period, they say 1,535 surgeries were completed.

“It is important to be clear that scheduled urgent and emergency surgeries continued and anyone needing emergency care were triaged and received health care services as needed,” the Ministry said.

“Interior Health will be rescheduling all of the postponed surgeries as soon as possible and we thank everyone impacted for their understanding as we work together to manage COVID-19 surges across IH.”

Dix said these non-urgent scheduled surgeries have also resumed at Kelowna General (Sept. 27), Vernon Jubilee (Sept. 29), and Penticton Regional hospitals (Oct. 1) in Interior Health.

He also said Surrey Memorial Hospital in Fraser Health will resume surgeries in a second operating room, fully restoring all surgeries at that hospital.