‘We want to make progress together’: Health Minister on surgical wait times study
Posted January 15, 2019 7:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Public resources are now being maximized after years of inaction by the former provincial government, that’s how Health Minister Adrian Dix is responding to a study that shows a dramatic hike in surgical wait times.
The B.C. Anesthesiologists’ Society is reporting more than 85,000 people are currently waiting for surgery, but Dix says changes introduced last March are working.
“This year, we’ve targeted a number of specific areas, including hip and knee replacements and we’ve, of course, significantly increased diagnostic care,” Dix says. “We’ve opened up operating rooms that weren’t previously opened, 10 MRI machines operating 24/7.”
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He says people have told him that they don’t mind getting their MRI done at one or two in the morning if that means less waiting times.
Data released Tuesday by the BCAS shows, since 2002, surgical wait lists have increased nearly three times the growth rate of BC’s population.
Dix says this study is outdated because the research material dates back to when the BC Liberals were in power.
“We’ve reduced the median wait time for hip and knee replacements by six weeks, the median wait time for dental surgery which is important for many people with disabilities by three weeks, significantly increased the number of surgeries. More than three thousand people will get the surgery they need this year,” he adds.
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The society’s CEO Doctor Roland Orfaly says numbers as fresh as last year show about one-third of patients requiring surgery have been delayed longer than the benchmark limit.
Dix says he’s looking forward to working with the B.C. Anesthesiologists’ Society to keep making improvements on issues dating back more than a decade.
“Ongoing disputes are not what we want to do,” he says. “We want to make progress together, so we’ve been working hard with them to make progress over the last number of months and I think that we can have even more success in the next years of our multi-year surgical plan with the support and involvement of anesthesiologists that’s for sure.”
The society represents 400 specialist doctors across B.C.
