September 25, 2026 New data: Number of patients waiting for surgery since end of pandemic up 8.4% New data: Number of patients that died on waitlists rises to 16,791 since 2022-23 New data: 35% of British Columbians not receiving surgery within the benchmark New data: B.C. taxpayers have now paid over $245 million for tourists’ health care BRITISH COLUMBIA: Canadian think tank SecondStreet.org released several freedom of information responses today with new data today on B.C.’s health care crisis. The data, along with other key statistics, were summarized in a short bulletin on the situation. The bulletin also examines everything from wait times to the number of patients dying on waiting lists. “Everyone knows there was a surgical backlog coming out of the pandemic,” said SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig. “Unfortunately, the surgical backlog has risen 8.4% since the end of 2022. There’s a crisis right across Canada but B.C. has several alarming statistics, including the fact the system has spent over $242 million on health care for people that don’t even live in B.C. It’s the worst we’ve seen in Canada.” New data released by SecondStreet.org include: FOI response shows 96,238 patients are waiting for surgery, 236,162 for a diagnostic scan and 132,425 for an appointment with a specialist. While the latter two statistics were provided for the first time, the number of patients waiting for surgery is up 8.4% since the end of the pandemic. To see the FOI response – click here FOI responses from B.C.’s health regions show 16,791 patients have died while waiting for surgery and diagnostic scans since 2022-23; up 4,100 since last year’s report. (Note: Diagnostic data from Vancouver Coastal not provided). FOI response shows in 2025, there were 282,887 patients that received surgeries for which there was a clinical benchmark. Of those, 98,545 patients (35%) waited longer than the benchmark time period. To see the FOI response – click here FOI responses show Vancouver Coastal ($12M) and Fraser Health ($27M) spent $40 million on health care for non-residents in 2025-26, bringing B.C.’s total unpaid bill to over $245 million since 2020-21: highest in…​Read More