B.C. sets record, delivers 350,000 surgeries last fiscal year, health minister says

The British Columbia government says the province set a record for the most surgeries performed in the last fiscal year.

A report from the Health Ministry says from April 2022 to March 2023 B.C. delivered more than 350,000 surgeries, exceeding the record of 337,000 set the year previously.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the milestone is proof the government is delivering on its commitment to complete surgeries postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather and staffing challenges.

The ministry says 99.9 per cent of the nearly 15,000 patients whose scheduled surgeries were postponed in the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 have had procedures if they still wanted them.

It says 99.7 per cent of people who had their surgeries postponed in later periods have also had their procedures completed.

The province says the total wait-list size has shrunk nearly five per cent compared with the same time frame in 2019-20.

"What is clear is that innovation works," Dix said on Thursday.

"Finding new methods, approaches and facilities works, individual and collective action works. All these are critical parts of surgical renewal and put simply, surgical renewal works for that reason."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2023.