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Early data suggests BC’s surgical renewal commitment is making significant progress.
Photo by Jaana Björk
BC making progress with surgical renewal plan
Published 3:52 PDT, Tue July 21, 2020
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Early data from the initial weeks of BC’s surgical renewal commitment show significant progress has been made.
“British Columbians have made enormous sacrifices to keep our communities as a safe as possible from COVID-19,” said Health Minister Adrian Dix. “As part of this, many surgeries were postponed to prepare our health-care system for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients. In May, we committed to significantly increase the number of surgeries performed beyond pre-COVID-19 levels to keep up with new demands for surgery and complete the surgeries lost to COVID-19. The progress to date is an amazing testament to the tireless dedication of our health-care workers.”
The province is releasing its first public update report on the surgical renewal commitment, covering the period from May 18 to June 25.
• 62,744 patients have been contacted to arrange their surgery from May 7 to July 12.
• 52 per cent of the 17,742 whose surgery was postponed, and who have been called, had their surgeries completed by June 25.
• 33,723 surgeries have been completed from May 18 to June 25, representing 91 per cent of last year's volume.
• From May 18 to June 25, urgent surgery volumes exceeded last year’s volumes.
• Significant focus on patients waiting longer than two times their target wait time resulted in these patients making up 19.4 per cent of non-urgent surgeries completed during the time period, compared to 10.5 per cent in 2019.
• Summer slowdowns will be reduced by 52 per cent. In previous years, surgical activity has decreased during the summer as a result of planned vacations.
• Surgery durations are back to within 6 per cent of where they were last year.
• $815,000 has been provided to Health Match BC to support the recruitment of additional health-care professionals.
• Since April 1, 29 new anesthetists have been recruited.
• Recruitment efforts have also resulted in the hiring of 111 perioperative registered nurses, six perioperative licensed practical nurses, 60 post-anesthetic recovery registered nurses and 35 medical device reprocessing technicians.
To view the province’s Progress Report #1 on BC’s surgical renewal commitment, click here.
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