B.C.’s Health minister says surgeries which were delayed because of COVID-19 have almost returned to near normal, pre-COVID 19 levels in the province’s hospitals.
Adrian Dix says there were 6,425 surgeries completed in B.C. between June 8 and 14, with that number down slightly to 6,358 surgeries between June 15 and 21. The vast majority, he noted, were scheduled surgeries.
“It obviously demonstrates the extraordinary work happening throughout the public health care system and we are immensely grateful to everyone involved in this process, who have arrived at this point,” he said.
“To be consistently doing 6,000 plus surgeries demonstrates the commitment of all those involved.”
All told, Dix says 28,247 surgeries have been completed in B.C. hospitals since surgeries returned from a two month COVID-19 hiatus on May 18. Of that, 21,461 were scheduled surgeries, and 6,786 were unscheduled or emergency surgeries.
A total of 5,231 surgeries have been completed in the Interior Health Authority, Dix said.
“The priority of this first phase of surgery renewal is urgent surgeries, surgeries with waiting times of less than four weeks, patients who have had their surgeries postponed, and patients who have waited more than twice their clinical benchmarks,” he noted.
“We are also focused on patients who’s surgeries can safely be conducted as day procedures and outside of the main operating room.”
During the hiatus from March 16 to May 17, Dix says there were 23,536 surgeries that were completed in hospitals, roughly 2,600 a week, or about half of the 6,000 that is usually completed in normal times.
Roughly 30,000 elective surgeries were cancelled or postponed province-wide to clear space in hospitals for COVID-19 patients. Health officials previously said there were over 93,000 on the waitlist for a surgery, with the expectation that all existing operating rooms would be running at full capacity by June 15.
Dix previously noted it could take almost two years for the province to clear the entire backlog at a cost of $250-million.
