B.C. orthopedic surgeries down 25% in public hospitals as private sector picks up slack

Orthopedic surgeons in B.C. report they’re doing only three quarters of the surgeries they used to in the province’s public hospitals, as an increasing number of taxpayer-funded procedures are carried out in private facilities. Healthcare workers describe a scarcity of experienced perioperative nurses, staffed recovery beds and other resources resulting in fewer patients each day having surgery. Despite criticism that there’s only one pool of healthcare workers in the province and use of private surgical centres undermines the public system, the provincial government defended the growing use of those centres saying the numbers are so small: from 3.5% of total surgeries in 2018 to 4.4% in 2020.