Starting in mid-March, elective surgeries were halted in many parts of the country. “Elective” is a misnomer because it implies that the surgery is optional or unnecessary, which is rarely the case. The fact is that disease progression does not take a break and continues to adversely affect the individual’s quality of life, including his/her ability to work and earn a living. While it may not be an “emergency,” it is often very, very urgent that that patient have that procedure. It can save a life or determine the five-year mortality rate.

One of the many unintended consequences of the Covid-19 lock-down was that it created an enormous backlog of these “elected surgeries” across Canada. In response, health officials in B.C. announced a plan to resume such procedures starting on May 18. The official timeline, aimed to clear the backlog of cases within 24 months is still waiting to be implemented. As of May 31, 2020, there are 25,010 people on the wait-list for cataract surgery, 3726 on Hip-Replacement wait-list and another 7166 waiting for knee replacement.  And these are only 3 of the current BC wait-lists. Wait-times—which were already month and sometimes years long prior to the pandemic—therefore continue to lengthen, despite the fact that our hospitals remain largely under-utilized (there are only two Covid-19 patients in ICUs across the province as of Jul-02-2020).

Please sign (and share) this petition to help us raise awareness of these unsatisfactory developments and urge health officials to start implementing the proposed program and allocate all necessary resource to eliminate the backlog of elective surgeries immediately.