Surgery wait times are a frustrating and painful reality for thousands of people on Vancouver Island, including a Victoria man who says he’s been in agony for more than a year.
Alan Traish is waiting for a consultation for a hip replacement he says will change his life.
The typically active senior may have to wait another year before he has surgery.
“Time is running out and so my quality of life should be a lot better than it is,” Traish said.
The long wait time is not unusual on the island – there are roughly 1,000 people waiting for a procedure.
Rebalance MD in Saanich is a privately run clinic that’s funded with public dollars. It was started by doctors who were fed up with the system.
The clinic says more than 3,600 of its patients are waiting to see orthopedic surgeons.
“It’s an impossible situation sometimes for the patients and it’s impossible also for the surgeons,” CEO Stephan Fletcher said.
The clinic’s goal is to streamline wait times by allowing patients to see a number of specialists under one roof.
“There are many, many, many people who are probably waiting a little too long, more than comfortably too long,” Fletcher added.
He says one solution is more funding to ramp up the number of surgeries being performed.
The current wait time for orthopedic day surgeries at the Saanich centre is about six months.
“For in-patient, which requires an overnight stay, it can fluctuate from 38 to 52 weeks relative to the surgeon,” Fletcher said.
Island Health says a new surgical day centre opening in View Royal next month will ease the wait time by performing 2,500 surgeries a year.
An additional clinic is little comfort to Traish who says his hip replacement can’t come soon enough.
“I’m hoping I can walk again and at least have a walk down the sidewalk and have that beautiful walk on the Songhees Walkway,” he said.
CTV News has reached out to the province for the latest surgical wait time statistics.
With files from CTV Vancouver Island’s Louise Hartland
