Waiting months and months for elective surgery is a frustrating reality for thousands of British Columbians, but some wait lists are much longer than others.
One of the longest lists is currently for cataract surgery, a procedure more than 22,000 people in the province were waiting for as of Jan. 31.
Among them was Colleen Griffin, who learned she had cataracts after realizing her vision was so blurry she couldn't even read the time on her kitchen clock.
She waited for almost a year before finally having both her eyes done.
"There are just so many of us who are all going through the same thing at the same time," Griffin said.
Other elective surgeries with long backlogs include knee replacement (7,454), abdominal hernia repair (4,482), hip replacement (3,519), and uterine surgery (2,678).
Vancouver General Hospital's head of orthopedics told CTV News he can remember his patients waiting up to two years in the past, though that wait has since decreased.
Dr. Bas Masri said it's still far from ideal, however, taking roughly six months to get an operation in the Lower Mainland.
"We're trying to get as many procedures done in as tight a system as efficiently as possible," Masri said, adding that the problem isn't purely a lack of funding.
"Not all constraints are related to what most people think of as budgets, money. It's human resource. It's the ability to recruit people."
The B.C. government's plan to better manage wait lists includes training more specialty nurses, opening new operating rooms at VGH – though they aren't expected for another four years – and providing $25-million in one-time funding to address backlogs in the meantime.
"It's a multi-pronged strategy," Minister Terry Lake said.
"We have an aging and growing population, we have people moving here from all over Canada, and so it is challenging to keep up with that demand, but we have strategies in place to ensure we have the team, the resources and the operating rooms."
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Maria Weisgarber
