B.C. in ‘crisis’: Number of patients waiting for surgery, dying on wait-lists increasing, new data show

The number of B.C. patients waiting for surgery and dying on waitlists has risen significantly since COVID-19, indicating a continued backlog, new figures show.

Canadian think-tank SecondStreet.org released several freedom of information responses in a report Friday showing 96,238 patients are waiting for surgery, up 8.4 per cent since 2022.

The responses from B.C.’s health regions also show 16,791 patients have died while waiting for surgery and diagnostic scans between 2022 and 2023 and between 2025 and 2026. The figure doesn’t include diagnostic scan wait-list deaths for Vancouver Coastal Health and Island Health in 2022 and 2023. The report says the true figure is likely higher.

“B.C. is in a crisis,” said Colin Craig, president of SecondStreet, which analyzes Canadian health-care data. “Somepeoplesay,‘Well,you’renotgoingtodieifyoudon’tgetyourhipoperationintime.’Andit’slike,‘Well,youmightnot,butifyou’restuckinyourapartmentwithchronicpain andyou’renotgettinganyexercise,thatmightcontributetosomethinglikeaheartattack.’ “

A snap provincial election was called this week in B.C., and already the parties have made health-care promises. But Craig says this is a Canada-wide crisis and throwing more money at the problem isn’t a solution.

“We need health-care reform,” he said. “Our wait times are horrendous compared to when you go to European countries, in particular Sweden, France, Denmark. … They think we’re crazy. They can’t understand why a developed country like Canada has such horrific wait times.”

Some of the solutions in Europe include a cross-border directive, which allows patients to pay for treatment in another EU country and be reimbursed by their home government. In Denmark, Portugal and Sweden, patients waiting longer than government benchmarks can seek publicly funded care in a private facility, the report says.

Postmedia News contacted the B.C. NDP, the B.C. Conservatives, and the B.C. Greens for a response to the new figures. Only the NDP replied by deadline, saying “we need to keep hiring and training more doctors, nurses and health-care workers to meet that demand and bring wait times down.”

The NDP said it expects more recruits from the new SFU medical school in Surrey, while the province continues to expand diagnostic capacity with 21 new MRI units and 15 new CT units.

“Any party interested in governing should put aside partisan politics to acknowledge the seriousness of the crisis,” said Craig.

Another solution is for B.C. to crack down on lost health-care costs.

Data show B.C.’s health-care system lost more than $245 million since 2020 for patients who aren’t residents of B.C. In June, SecondStreet released data showing about $200.6 million in losses for Fraser, Interior, Island and Vancouver Coastal from 2020 to 2025. A later FOI added a few more million dollars from Northern Health.

The new data released Friday includes updated figures for Vancouver Coastal ($12 million) and Fraser Health ($27 million) for 2025 and 2026, which brings the total to $245 million. That number is expected to rise even further when the group receives the 2025-26 data from the other health authorities.