Adrian Dix says 32,400 procedures were not done or not scheduled as of mid-March to retain beds that may have been needed for COVID-19 patients
Combined with patients already on wait lists, the number of people waiting for procedures ballooned to over 95,000.However, Dix says over half the patients whose surgeries were cancelled in the spring had them between May 18 and June 25.
Michael Marchbank, former CEO of Fraser Health and consultant to the Health Ministry, says the backlog could be cleared in 15 months, down from the previous forecast of two years. He says surgeries will be expedited with extended operating-room hours on evenings and weekends but “hard work” is ahead to make that happen.
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