By Tom Mark

BC Government To Reduce Surgical Wait Lists

Mar 21, 2018 | 11:32 AM

The provincial government is following through on a promise to attack surgical wait times.

Premier John Horgan says demand is growing for all surgeries and it’s time to invest to keep up with those demands.

“When we think of health care we want to know that everyone can get access to the health care they need, where they need it and when they need it. The most bedeviling part of that challenge of course is wait times. Over and over and over again, people living in pain look to the public health care system and say can we do more. And the response we’re providing today is yes we can.”

That response is to announce a four-part surgical strategy aimed at reducing wait times.

One of the first components of the strategy will see five hip and knee replacement programs implemented throughout the province.

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“Effective today, or the at the start of the next fiscal year, which is weeks away, we’re going to be investing 75 million dollars in increasing knee and hip replacement surgeries. that will lead to a 34 per cent increase in procedures.”

In 2016-17, 30% of people waiting for hip surgery and 38% of people waiting for knee surgery waited more than 26 weeks.

In that time, approximately 14,390 hip and knee surgeries were performed, and by 2018-19, more than 19,250 will be done annually.

“34 per cent increase in surgeries, four thousand people. I said that twice, I’m going to say it a third time. Four thousand people will benefit from the infusion of 75 million dollars this year and in creasing to a hundred million dollars next year.”

In total under the surgical strategy, 9,400 more surgeries – 4,000 additional hip and knee, 900 dental and 4,500 other surgeries – will be done throughout the province by the end of March 2019, compared to the previous year.

The surgical strategy has four areas of focus:
* Providing more surgeries in areas with long wait times, starting with hip and knee surgeries and incrementally tackling other surgeries with long waits;
* Investing to keep up with growing demand for all other surgeries;
* Making surgical programs and operating rooms in the province more efficient through better planning and scheduling and, establishing centralized booking and a single point of contact for patients; and
* Making sure the right number of health professionals is in place to deliver the services needed to meet demand both now and into the future, including surgeons and anesthetists, as well as nursing and rehabilitation health professionals.

by Tom Mark