(Graphic supplied by BC Government)

BC is making some headway when it comes to surgeries that were postponed due to COVID-19.

According to the province, two-thirds of the 17-thousand patients who had their surgeries pushed back have now had those procedures completed.

In Northern Health, just over half of the 712 postponed cases have been completed.

Spokesperson Eryn Collins recently spoke with Vista Radio.

“We are seeing progress across the province including the north, we know there is more work to do and we also know that COVID-19 also impacts not only our region but the entire province.”

“We have called and connected with more than 45-hundred patients who had their procedures postponed to discuss rebooking them and in late July, we had completed more than half (54%) of the delayed surgeries and in June and July we had completed 130% of the urgent surgeries compared to the same period last year.”

In the government’s Surgical Renewal Progress Report it outlined a number of key points including:

  • An additional 22,645 were made to patients to see if they were ready to reschedule their surgery. Since May 7th, over 85-thousand residents have been contacted.
  • BC has completed 25,500 scheduled and unscheduled surgeries, a 4% increase over the same time frame last year

From June 26th to July 23rd, the province performed an increase of 4% in both hip and knee surgeries along with a 2% hike in dental operations compared to the same timeframe last year.

A full link to the report can be found here.