B.C. aims to clear surgery backlog in 15 months if COVID-19 surge doesn't happen

British Columbia's health minister says the province has hired more staff and increased operating-room hours to catch up on cancelled surgeries but a significant surge in COVID-19 cases could impact recovery.

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.