For a sixth straight year, the number of people who died while on Interior Health’s (IH) waitlist for surgeries or diagnostic work rose.
That’s according to data released by SecondStreet.org, a Canadian think tank that examines government policies, obtained through a freedom of information request.
The IH data, published by SecondStreet.org on Tuesday, shows that nearly 1,600 waitlisted patients died during the 2024-25 fiscal year, from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025.
That included 222 surgical bookings and 1,364 medical imaging bookings cancelled due to patient death.
“It’s been six years, and waitlist deaths are still getting worse in and around Kelowna,” said SecondStreet.org communications director Dom Lucyk, who spoke with NowMedia video host Jim Csek on Wednesday.
“This is a failure of the healthcare system, plain and simple. If we don’t see health reform, it’s only going to continue to get worse.”
While the numbers might pop off the page, and a steadily increasing waitlist certainly isn’t ideal, it’s also a reminder that correlation does not imply causation.
Around half of the medical imaging bookings cancelled due to patient death were assigned a priority level five or unknown, indicating they were far from life or death situations.
On the surgical side, 39% of people who died waiting for their procedure were scheduled for non-urgent cataract surgeries. Others were waiting on knee replacements.
“It is not possible to directly correlate waitlists for surgery and medical imaging with deaths, and it is misleading to suggest that patients died because they were waiting for surgery or medical imaging,” an IH statement to NowMedia explained.
“In many cases, the procedure or test may have been elective and/or the cause of death was completely unrelated to it.”
The health authority says it prioritizes surgeries and medical imaging exams based on urgency, with “limited waits” for individuals requiring emergency care.
While the waitlists have grown, IH says there has been a 25% increase in surgeries and a 20% increase in medical imaging over the past six years.
The health authority also boasts the addition of three new MRI machines, three new CT scanners and other medical imaging equipment like ultrasounds to meet demand.
But Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew, one of the loudest critical voices of Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) and IH over recent weeks, said the numbers are another reflection of the bigger crisis at hand.
“This is the human toll of a collapsing healthcare system,” he said. “These aren’t just statistics – every number is a name, a loved one, a family torn apart. A person failed by government inaction and bureaucratic mismanagement.”
Dew says the NDP has “clearly lost control of our healthcare system,” and British Columbia’s deserve “urgent, common-sense reforms.”
The health authority, meanwhile, says that it recognizes waiting for surgery and medical imaging impacts individuals and families.
“Along with the Ministry of Health, we are closely monitoring waitlists to meet increasing demands and meet the needs of the patients and communities we serve,” IH told NowMedia.
The pediatric crisis at KGH and ongoing emergency department closures across BC’s Southern Interior recently led to the resignation of IH CEO Susan Brown.
CFO Sylvia Weir has taken over the role on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is found.
