People who require elective surgery may be surprised at the wait times at the local hospital.
At the University Hospital of Northern B.C. 23 per cent of patients will wait between six and 12 months and 77 per cent will wait less than six months, said Anne Chisholm, health service administrator for Prince George.
When a surgeon makes the determination that surgery is required, the surgeon sends the paperwork into the operating room booking office. From the time the surgery is booked until the date of the surgery is how the hospital defines wait time, explained Chisholm.
"That's what we keep track of and we are required to do that provincially," said Chisholm. Currently, a total of about 1,800 surgeries are waiting to be performed in Prince George, she added.
"We're trying to have nobody wait over 52 weeks in Northern Health and every health authority is working hard to have no elective cases waiting for more than a year," said Chisholm.
There are seven operating rooms that are booked on a regular basis between Monday and Friday with about 35 surgeons using the facilities.
"We always try to keep it at seven and that varies depending on the patient's schedule, depending on maternity leave, retirements, so staffing is always something we pay attention to," said Chisholm.
In addition to elective surgeries, there are emergency surgeries that will take priority as the hospital in Prince George is the trauma centre for the north, she added.
All non-emergency surgery is considered elective.
All the surgeons in the department decide how to prioritize the surgeries that need to take place.
"So the OR (operating room) time as a whole is allocated to groups of surgeons and within that allocation for that group of surgeons they determine how to further allocate their time within the group," said Chisholm. "It's very complicated and I am over-simplifying it."
A patient can try to advocate for themselves in an effort to reduce wait time for surgery.
It's the surgeon who determines whose surgery is a priority, said Chisholm.
"So my encouragement to people waiting longer than what they are comfortable with - have a conversation with their surgeon," said Chisholm. "Maybe something has changed and they need to be re-prioritized."
There are no plans to expand beyond the seven operating rooms at this time.
Northern Health has the budget to cover a full complement of staff for the operating rooms, which varies depending on the type of surgery performed.
