Surgeons at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre will be busy for the next while.
The hospital’s Executive Vice-President of In-Patient Care Programs, Dr. Peter Voros estimates it will take quite a while to catch up on the current waiting list due to COVID-19.
He explains there are now about 4,000 people waiting for surgery, but that number could be as high as 6,000 based on people who have not yet been referred by their doctors.
“Typically at any given time pre-pandemic we would have had 3,000 people waiting for surgery,” notes Dr. Voros.
He adds once all the doctor referrals are complete, it could take a year to a year and a half to clear the complete backlog.
Dr. Voros goes on to say normally the wait time for surgery at the hospital is about 6 months on average with that number at about 7 months or even greater.
